Dovetail Partners provides information about green building and assistance with many of the programs that are currently available. Staff are experienced with green building practices, program standards, and project registration and certification processes. Dovetail Partners is a member of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and active in a number of green building programs including Minnesota GreenStar, Minnesota Green Communities, and LEED.

Over the last several years, the market for green building has officially exploded into the mainstream. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported that the number of U.S. cities with green building programs reached 130 by the end of 2008, an increase of 418 percent since 2003. On the homebuilding front, according to a recent survey of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) conducted by McGraw-Hill Construction, “by the end of 2010 more than half of NAHB’s members, who build more than 80 percent of the homes in the U.S., will be incorporating green practices into the development, design and construction of new homes.” A trend toward green is quite obviously underway.

A leading program for evaluating and recognizing green buildings is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). At the end of 2009 there were more than 26,000 LEED-registered buildings, more than 5,000 of which are located in the U.S. With standards for everything from water conservation to material selection, the USGBC’s LEED program is having significant impact on nearly all sectors of the building industry, including forest products. By understanding the LEED system and the specific credits, suppliers can go beyond just offering customers the materials they need and instead start to offer the service of “helping them achieve LEED”. Providing this service does present a learning curve challenge to the industry, but it also represents a significant value-added opportunity.

It is important that green building standards in fact lead toward lower environmental impact. Green building programs address a broad array of topic areas, including energy efficiency; water management; building materials production, transport, use and maintenance; indoor environmental quality; and recycling, reuse and waste minimization. The continued refinement of green building programs and the increased use of life cycle assessment as a basis for material selections can help ensure environmental benefits from green building.