The following is an excerptt of the article “Report Blasts Standards Ahead of Green Building Code Revision” by E&E reporter Amanda Peterka:

“A major forest-certification program raises the consumer price for wood and puts the United States at a competitive disadvantage by driving business overseas, a consumer research organization warned in a study released today.

The Forest Stewardship Council’s rating system also perpetuates poor environmental practices in developing countries and encourages consumers to substitute less environmentally friendly goods in buildings, the American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research said.

“Because these standards aren’t consistent, the effect is to punish the U.S. market at the benefit of other markets and to increase U.S. costs, which in turn decreases U.S. production” of wood products, Steve Pociask, president of ACI and an author of the study, said today in an interview.”

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