Building Design & Construction magazine has issued a 48-page white paper on the green building movement “to provide an objective, third-party review of the public policy aspects of sustainable design.”

The document, sponsored in part by the Wood Promotion Network, contains four parts: a brief historical overview of green building; the results of a specially commissioned survey of the magazine’s readership to determine the current level of interest and involvement in sustainability; an analysis of green building trends, issues and published research; and finally, a set of recommendations in the form of an action plan. Among the authors’ nine recommendations is that the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program embrace life cycle assessment rating criteria, a position widely supported by the wood products industry on the grounds that wood products, without such assessment, are unfairly penalized.

The report also recommends that a peer-reviewed study of the economic and “business case” aspects of sustainable design be undertaken. The full report is available for downloading at www.bdcmag.com.