The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) plans to release the new Green Star Design & As Built (D&AB) tool in October this year.

All buildings and building products can now benefit from Third Party Certification and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). This means all building products will, for the first time be able to assist buildings gain important credit points towards their Green Star ratings. This also means all building and interiors product manufacturers will be required to furnish life cycle assessment (LCA) based information about their products.

The new GBCA Green Star system-wide, whole-of-life Project LCA credits engage all base building and building interiors product sectors as follows:

  1. The new integrated Design & As Built Tool (launching October 2014);
  2. The new integrated Interiors Pilot Tool (launching 2015);
  3.  The introduction of whole-of-life Project LCA to new tools and existing tools.

Covering all building types, GBCA’s Design & As Built tool has two credit sections relevant to building products: 'Product Transparency and Sustainability' and the 'Alternative Compliance Pathway: Whole Building LCA'.

The Product Transparency and Sustainability section is relevant to all products with third party certification, ISO 14001 EMS, Product Stewardship and EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations); while the Alternative Compliance Pathway: Whole Building LCA is relevant to the entire materials category.

GreenTag is in a unique position to assist products gain new traction in the green building sector.

GreenTag is recognised by GBCA and can prepare complying LCA and EPDs as part of its LCARate certification program, typically providing these services at 40-60% less cost than other industry LCA practitioners.

LCARate simplifies the complexity of sustainability marketing to three key pieces of information: Tiered GreenTag Mark (Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum), Product scorecard with sustainability metrics, and EPDs.

GreenTag is an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) approved National Certification Mark; is the dominant certifier in Australia in a number of sectors; is the only recognised scheme currently capable of certifying the majority of building products; received the 2013 Banksia Environmental Award for the Built Environment; provides 'fixed fee' certification with no turnover royalty; is highly recognised within the sector; and provides great additional value and trust to any brand.