Forest Stewardship Council Calls for Building Award Submissions

WASHINGTON — The Forest Stewardship Council-US is calling for project submissions for the third annual Designing & Building with FSC Award, which will be presented at the 2007 USGBC GreenBuild International Conference and Exposition in Chicago in November.

The FSC annual award recognizes building projects that have furthered responsible forest management through the incorporation of FSC-certified wood products.

The award is open to owners, developers, architects, interior designers, general contractors, builders, consultants and other professionals associated with projects of any building type — institutional, commercial, mixed-use or residential — completed during or after 2004 that have incorporated at least 50 percent (of new wood by cost) FSC-certified wood.

Submissions are judged on their use of wood, overall wood design, appropriate wood usage and efforts to progress certified-forest-product market transformation.

Last year’s award went to Washington-based HKP Architects for the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center in Diablo Lake, Wash. The inaugural FSC award in 2005 was presented to international investment-banking firm Goldman Sachs & Co. in recognition of the company’s 42-floor office tower in Jersey City, N.J.

There are approximately 23 million acres of FSC-certified forestland in the United States and more than 225 million acres around the world, according to the FSC.

The FSC-US is the leading independent organization in the national and international certification of sustainable forest management, with standards that address environmental, social and economic issues, officials say.

FSC promotes responsible and sustainable forest management by evaluating and accrediting certifiers, by encouraging the development of regional and national forest management standards and strategies, and by engaging in public education and information dissemination about forest protection and management, officials say.

GreenBuild International Conference and Exposition

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To learn more about the FSC award, review past case-study submissions or to download an application form, visit the Green Building section of the FSC-US official website — www.fscus.org

To be eligible for consideration, project submission applications must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. (PST), Friday, September 14th, 2007.