At least 80% of wood products by cost on a Living Certified 7 Petal Living Building Challenge project must be FSC certified. A wood product or wood containing product is defined as, "Any product containing wood at greater than or equal to 5-10% by weight or characterised by obvious visual wood components."
All other wood must be low risk wood, that is having a source country that has sufficient laws, policies and practices in place to provide some protection against corrupt and/or damaging wood harvesting practices. Low risk is defined as a source country with a score of 80 or higher as reported on The Nature, Economy and People Connected (NEPCON) tool. The List of Countries that met ILFI’s Definition of Low Risk Wood, current as of October 2020, that is at the time of our LBC projects, Pā Reo and Ngā Mokopuna, was: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.
Our advocacy, as part of the Living Building Challenge, brought us before Elizabeth Heeg, CEO of the NZFOA, Rachel Millar, Environmental Manager of the NZFOA, and, Mark Ross, CEO of the WPMA. The NZFOA is the New Zealand Forest Owners Association and the WPMA is the Wood Processors & Manufacturers Association of New Zealand. We were pleased to be able to make these connections and discuss our values, many of which we share, and work toward a greater uptake of sustainable certification for forests that is appropriate for New Zealand, through our relationship to them and our connection to Living Future Oceania.
Here are some Facts & Figures from the NZFOA.
Global Forests
• There are 4.06 billion hectares of forests globally, covering 31% of the world's land area
• The worldwide carbon storage in trees is 662 billion tonnes of carbon
• The ecosystem services forests provide are valued at NZD 12.64 trillion, which is 9% of the world's GDP
• Between 2000 and 2020, 47 million hectares were lost
• Halting deforestation would prevent 3.6 giga tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year until 2050
National
• Exotic forest estate has 1,828,995 hectares as at 1 April 2023
• FSC covers 1,183,259 hectares of New Zealand exotic forests
• PEFC covers 543,271 hectares of New Zealand exotic forests
• 91% is pinus radiata
• 5% is douglas fir
• 2% are softwoods
• 2% are hardwoods
• The average age of the pinus radiata forest in New Zealand is 28 years
• 71.1% of the total exotic estate is outside the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) (73.4% in 2022)
Source: Forest Owners Association Facts & Figures 2023/24
Other Sources of Interest: The Ancient Forest Alliance