Forest Sector Changes the Rules Instead of Meeting Green Building Standards

www.tas.greens.org.au
The Tasmanian Greens today expressed their dismay at the forestry sector once again being allowed to shift the goalposts, this time in regards to the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) which had previously only recognised timber regulated by the internationally-renowned Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC), but which will now accept timber from the weak Australian Forestry Standard (AFS) following months of “intensive lobbying” by forestry unions, the Labor Party, and the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania.

Greens Forests spokesperson Kim Booth MP said the Tasmanian forestry sector is unable to achieve FSC certification because it is an unsustainable industry that relies on felling ancient forests which were growing before Europeans even arrived in Australia, and that the AFS standard was set up as a specific response to this inability to gain international certification for unsustainable timber products.

Mr Booth also said that this move from the GBCA is undermining its own reason for existence and risks making the organisation irrelevant to those who are seeking advice about truly sustainable building practices.

“What is the point of setting up a certification program for sustainable building products and practices, and then allowing unsustainable inputs?,” said Mr Booth.

“AFS was set up as a direct response to FSC’s refusal to certify the clearfelling, firebombing and poisoning of ancient forests. It is a sham scheme that has no relationship to the sustainability of the timber it is certifying.”

“Once again we see the forest sector simply changing the rules when confronted by the unsustainability of their own practices.”

“The Green Building Council has just undermined the very reason for its being – it is supposed to be ‘encouraging the adoption of green building practices,’ but its decision to allow an unsustainable input now raises questions about all other allowed inputs that it recommends.” [1]

“It is notable that after getting his way on the certification of unsustainable timber products, even Michael O’Connor of the CFMEU believes that the Green Building Council now has ‘no credibility’.” [2]

“If the GBCA are going to let themselves be bullied into acting as stooges on behalf of the native forest woodchip industry, then they are of no value as consumers cannot have any confidence in their ratings or recommendations,” said Mr Booth.

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Reference:

“Launched in 2002, the GBCA is a national, not-for-profit organisation that is committed to developing a sustainable property industry for Australia by encouraging the adoption of green building practices.”

[Green Building Council of Australia, “Welcome to the Green Building Council,” http://www.gbca.org.au/ ]

‘“I have little faith in the covenant of the Green Building Council and they have no credibility with us,” Mr O’Connor said yesterday.’

[“Deal brokered on sustainable timber,” Tom Arup, The Age, 30 November 2009, HERE ]

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Kim Booth MP Greens Forests Spokesperson