PEFC certified wood: a strategic partner in Green Building Schemes

23 May 2025 Sustainable construction

As businesses increasingly adopt responsible timber sourcing policies, green building standards continue to demand sustainably sourced wood and forest products for customers and clients.

Leading global assessment schemes – such as BREEAM and LEED – along with many other leading national building standards, recognize the important role of legal and sustainably certified timber in shaping a low-carbon built environment and hitting net zero targets.

LEED v5: Updated Steps in Sustainable Construction

In April, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) unveiled LEED v5, the latest version of the world’s most widely used green building certification system, with 197,000 projects worldwide. This updated version prioritizes low-carbon construction while addressing crucial factors such as human and ecosystem health and climate resilience.

Among the strategies outlined, specifying PEFC-certified wood is recognized as a key method for meeting risk mitigation requirements in the Ecosystem Health guidance for Level 1 Legality.

BREEAM: Recognising Responsible Sourcing

Triodos Bank was rated as BREEAM Outstanding in 2022

BREEAM is a third-party certified scheme, which encourages responsible product specification and procurement by awarding credits for achieving specific sustainability criteria in a project and are then weighted and combined to produce an overall BREEAM rating with ‘Outstanding’ being the highest.

Products certified under Responsible Sourcing Certification Schemes (RSCS), such as PEFC, help projects earn valuable BREEAM ratings while also promoting ethical supply chain practices.

European Green Building Standards: DGNB & Nordic Swan

Leading European green building schemes – the German Sustainable Building Council’s (DGNB) assessment programme and the Nordic Swan Ecolabel – are driving sustainable construction across multiple countries.

• DGNB-certified projects span Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, and Turkey, with PEFC recognized under Criterion ENV1.3 Responsible Resource Extraction, ensuring ecological and social accountability in material sourcing.
• The Nordic Swan Ecolabel, established in 1989, is the most widely recognized environmental certification in the Nordic region. It mandates that wood raw materials come from sustainably managed forests, requiring suppliers to hold a valid Chain of Custody Certificate from a third-party certification scheme like PEFC.

Meeting Sustainability Expectations

For those aiming to build responsibly, choose and specify materials carefully and meet overall sustainability goals, specifying PEFC-certified timber – along with full Chain of Custody – can make all the difference. It’s a smart, future-focused choice that gives confidence that you are complying with evolving international green building standards and supporting responsible and sustainable forestry practices.