GBCA GREEN STAR RATING TOOL AND TEXTILES
Announcement posted by INSTYLE CONTRACT TEXTILES 07 May 2010
The GBCA’s position is that any textile can be used provided that the textile contributes less than 10% to the weight of the finished product, which will almost invariably be the case for upholstered chairs, workstations and partitions.
Therefore, you do not need to use a GECA certified textile to achieve full Green Star points.
Please refer the GBCA’s Material Calculator Guide which states at –
Section 2.0, page 4: “Products classified as “Environmentally Innovative” ... automatically achieve all available points … within all calculators.”
Section 4.0, page 6: “A product certified by [GECA] can be categorised as “Environmentally Innovative”
“Where 90% or more (by mass) of the components of an item can be categorised as “Environmentally Innovative”, the project may enter the entire item as “Environmentally Innovative” in the calculator and may disregard any noncompliant components”.
Also, in recent correspondence between the GBCA and a Sydney architect, who asked –
“If I use a non certified GECA fabric on upholstered (fully) certified furniture can the customer still claim the workstations and chairs as being environmentally innovative in the calculator, and earn full Green Star credits?
The furniture without the fabric would still be fully GECA certified, and the non GECA fabric would only contribute about 4% to the weight of the final product.
My understanding is that the furniture would still be environmentally innovative because of the 90% rule, and therefore achieve full Green Star credits”.
The GBCA replied –
“If a chair is certified to a GBCA recognised product certification scheme (GECA) it can be entered as Environmentally Innovative regardless of whether the textile is or is not certified.
The Green Star Rating Tool, allows for 10% of non compliant product components, textiles will not constitute 10% of a chair, so that as long as the chair is certified the chair can be documented as Environmentally Innovative". Bold emphasis added.
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
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