Washington, D.C. - The Forest Stewardship Council-US (FSC-US) and Forest Products Solutions have announced a call for submissions for the first annual Designing & Building with FSC Award. Launched in conjunction with FSC's new professional training guide, Designing & Building with FSC, this annual award will recognize building projects that have furthered responsible forest management through their purchase of FSC-certified wood products. The winning project will be announced at the GreenBuild '05 Conference and Expo in Atlanta, Ga. November 9-11, 2005.

Michael Washburn, Vice President of Forestry and Marketing for FSC-US, stated, “FSC and the world's forests have benefited greatly from the recent boom in green building. LEED is transforming building markets and helping FSC to transform the forest products industry. We want to recognize the projects and teams that are the manifestation of this emerging ethic of responsible consumption. We expect many projects from around the nation to be considered, and we hope that the green building community will recognize how important wood is as a sustainable material.”

This award is open to owners, architects, interior designers, general contractors, builders, consultants or other professionals. Projects can be any building type, including commercial, institutional, mixed-use, or residential. To submit a project, it must have used a significant amount (at least 50 percent of the new wood by cost) of FSC-certified wood and been completed during or since 2002.

Projects will be judged on efforts to progress certified forest products market transformation, overall wood design and appropriate wood use. To learn more about the award and download an application form, please go to the Green Building section of FSC-US' Web site, www.fscus.org. All applications must be received by 5:00pm (PST), Friday, September 16th, 2005.