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GOOD ENVIRONMENTAL CHOICE AUSTRALIA (GECA) FURNITURE CERTIFICATION

Announcement posted by INSTYLE CONTRACT TEXTILES 07 May 2010

Choose “White Furniture” Certification

Suppliers and Manufacturers of Furniture Important Notice.

Applying for GECA Furniture Certification? Choose “White Furniture”

If you are considering applying for Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA) Certification of your upholstered furniture, then under the GECA Furniture Standard you can and should elect to have your furniture certified as “White Furniture”.

Furniture can be certified as being compliant with the GECA Furniture Standard

Inclusive of the textile – in which case the textile must comply with the requirements of the GECA Furniture Standard; OR

Exclusive of the textile – in which case the textile is not part of the certified item of furniture. This is known as “White Furniture”, which is defined in section 2.6 of the GECA Furniture Standard as “Furniture pending finishing (e.g. upholstering) to allow different client requirements”.

Both White Furniture and furniture certified inclusive of the textile achieve the maximum available Green Star credits (provided in the case of White Furniture that the textile used contributes less than 10% to the weight of the upholstered furniture, which is almost always the case). See the attached Important Clarification: GBCA Green Star Rating Tool and Textiles.

Many manufacturers including Stem, Inline, Formway, UCI, Koskela, K Five, Jardan, Chair Solutions, Formway, Workspace and Eastern Commercial Furniture have White Furniture certification and this provides their customers with the maximum choice of textiles to use in upholstering their furniture.

Manufacturers and suppliers who have had their furniture certified inclusive of the textile are at a competitive disadvantage to those suppliers and manufacturers:

with “White Furniture” certification; and

with those suppliers and manufacturers who have their furniture certified under another environmental labelling scheme such as the scheme now operated by Ecospecifier (see below),

and we recommend these suppliers and manufacturers should apply to GECA to amend the certification for their products to “White Furniture” certification.

If GECA, Environmental Assurance or Petar Johnson advise you that you cannot have your furniture certified as “White Furniture”, then you should ask for confirmation and an explanation in writing in view of the clear words of the GECA Furniture Standard which allows for “White Furniture” certification, and we ask that you then provide a copy of that written explanation to us.

GECA Environmental Product Declarations (EPD)

We have become aware that some furniture manufacturers and suppliers who originally had White Furniture certification have had their White Furniture certification converted to a certification inclusive of the textile, with the consequence that those manufacturers and suppliers are at a competitive disadvantage.

These manufacturers and suppliers who have had this occur should request their EDP be reverted back to White Furniture (which they are entitled to do), and those that have certification inclusive of the textile should consider converting their certification to White Furniture certification.

The GBCA has approved a new furniture and textile certification scheme for Green Star

The GBCA now recognises alternative standards that have complied with its new framework and this ends GECA’s monopoly over standards.

As at 7th May 2010 the only standard that has been assessed as compliant with the requirements of the GBCA’s Assessment Framework for Product Certification Schemes in furniture and textiles is

Ecospecifier GreenTag GreenRate

The GBCA will continue to recognise GECA certified products during a transition period which ends on 1 July 2010. After this date GECA and its standards will only be recognised by the GBCA provided that GECA and the standards it operates have been assessed against, and have complied with the full scope of the Framework.

Instyle’s Environmental Awards

2009 WINNER Sustainability Green Globe Awards - Business Sustainability Award

2009 FINALIST United Nations - World Environment Day Award - Best Specific Environmental Initiative

2008 WINNER United Nations - World Environment Day Award - Business Sustainability Award

2008 WINNER Sustainability Green Globe Awards – Premier’s Sustainability Excellence Award

2008 WINNER Sustainability Green Globe Awards - Industry Environmental Sustainability

2008 WINNER Sustainability Green Globe Awards - Small Business Environmental Sustainability

2007 FINALIST Banksia Environmental Award - Sustainability

2006 FINALIST Banksia Environmental Award - Sustainability