Products and Materials within Green Star

Products and Materials

The Green Building Council of Australia does not test, review or certify products or materials. Instead, the GBCA currently relies on third party certification bodies, such as Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA) [formerly the Australian Environmental Labelling Association (AELA)] for testing of products and materials. Please note a review of the framework under which the GBCA recognises third party environmental performance based product certification schemes is currently underway. Please refer to the Third Party Product Certification Recognition Project for more information.

Product suppliers are welcome to market their product as contributing to a project's Green Star rating. However, the Green Building Council of Australia does not endorse any claims. Suppliers must validate the environmental merit of a product or material in the project's submission for Green Star assessment. This can be done in one of two ways:

1. Product documentation
Preparation of product documentation is essential to validate a product's compliance with credit criteria. For example, the Mat-2 'Flooring' credit in the Green Star - Office Interiors v1.1 rating tool requires specific documentation to be provided to verify the 'product score' claimed in the material calculator component of the credit.

To put together this documentation, you will require a Technical Manual for the relevant rating tool. Green Star rating tools are publically available free of charge. Most interior products are addressed within Green Star - Office Interiors v1.1 rating tool in the Materials category. The IEQ-11 'Volatile Organic Compounds' and IEQ-12 'Formaldehyde Minimisation' credits are also often relevant to fit out materials

2. Third Party Product Certification
Green Star rewards the use of products that have been certified for their environmental merit by a third party certification body which has been pre-approved by the Green Building Council of Australia. Currently there are only two third party product certification bodies approved by the GBCA. These are:

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
FSC Certification is relevant only to timber products and is applicable in all Green Star rating tools, and for products with timber components for the calculation of Eco Preferred Content (EC) in Green Star - Office Interiors. Please visit the FSC website for a list of FSC certified products.

Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA)
GECA awards the 'Good Environmental Choice Label'. Final products (e.g. whole table or chair) that are 'GECA Certified' (option from pull-down menu for 'Environmentally Innovative') will automatically achieve a 'product score' of 100% in the calculators. These products do not need to present documentation for the certification assessment other than their AELA/GECA Certificate. Please note, if only a component of a product is 'GECA Certified', it does not automatically guarantee 'product score' of 100%, however, the mass of that component contributes to the 'Eco Preferred Content'* of the final product.

*Eco Preferred Content- Definition
1. Organically certified renewable products.
2. FSC certified timber.
3. Other components certified by a third party recognised by the GBCA.
Calculated on a mass bases
≤5%- 0 points
≥5% and <20%- 6 points
≥20%- 10 points
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The GBCA strongly recommends that you consider third-party validation of your product's environmental merit, as it greatly facilitates the Green Star certification process and the transition of the property industry towards sustainability, as outlined in 'Dollars and Sense of Green Building' and 'The Sustainable Building Pathway'.