GREEN BUILDING
GREEN STAR SYSTEM CONTINUES TO THREATEN GOOD WOOD The Australian timber industry is sweating on a review of the Green Star rating system that in a fair and just world would see the end of the FSC monopoly on points-scoring certification of wood products. But, as Tony Neilson reports, the devil is again in the detail.
T
he Green Star rating system for buildings challenges
logic and justice but nevertheless seems to be sweeping the globe at a similar pace to swine flu. How can a sustainable building programme that rewards a bike rack with the same number of points as can be earned for using certified wood have any credibility with thinking architects, politicians or the public at large? Well, it does. And you had better get used to it because as the benchmarksetting US Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) programme is now saying: “[Green Star] is coming to a home near you.” LEED for Homes is being designed to demonstrate that a high-performance sustainable house includes comfort, quiet, a healthy indoor environment, low maintenance and good looks.
Festering sore The USGBC – which also seems to set the base standards for Australian and New Zealand clones of the green building concept – is working with builders nationwide to develop a points system to “reinforce what builders are doing right environmentally”, says spokesman Jim Hackler. The Green Building phenomenon has taken off in Australia like nowhere else outside the US, but for the local wood industry it has become a festering
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