GreenTag was recognised as one of the third-party certification schemes able to certify products in GBCSA's new Interior v1 rating tool. GreenTag can now certify all furniture, assemblies, flooring and wall coverings to the appropriate level to allow products to gain credit points in the new rating tool launched in February.
The speakers included Lesley Sibanda from GBCSA, David Baggs CEO and Programme Director of Global GreenTag International, Marloes Reinink of Solid Green Consultants and Jeremy Sumeray of Armstrong Ceilings, UK.
Armstrong Ceilings have the first eight GreenTag-certified products in South Africa. They are rated to the top Level A. GreenTag was originally launched in Australia and has certified over 900 products in that market. Fortunately hundreds of these products are already available in the South African marketplace and will likely soon be available with GBCSA relevant GreenTag certification.
The Global GreenTag certification programme certifies all products in the construction sector and has been operational in South Africa since 2013, with certified products and numerous products under certification and is already transforming the South African marketplace. Four manufacturers that made application to GreenTag during that period have had the applications refused because of unacceptable toxic ingredients. This has prompted three of them to reformulate and resubmit. Only one has decided not to reformulate and has submitted to a local competitor ecolabel.
The GBCSA system was developed to evaluate the environmental performance of major products used in interior fit-outs in any building, new or old. Materials calculators allow credit points to be calculated as a result of various criteria including third-party certification to a variety of levels A, B or C. Level A attracts 100% of the Green Star Interiors tool credits. Level B equates to 85% and Level C equates to 75%.
GreenTag is the longest established and largest ecolabel programme in South Africa and has two related certification programmes recognised in combination under GBCSA's programme. LCARate is the world's first programme that uses Life Cycle Assessment in the assessment of the products during certification. LCARate also delivers Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum ratings, the world's only ecolabel EcoPOINT score, and summary LCA reports called Environmental Product Declarations - all as part of the certification. The GreenRate programme was designed for Green Building Council Materials Calculators and is assessed together with LCARate to Deliver GBCSA level rankings.
According to Grahame Cruickshanks, Green Building Manager of EY's Climate Change and Sustainability team: "The launch of the new Green Star Interiors Tool is likely to stimulate rapid market growth with ratings of both new and existing building fit-outs. GreenTag is set to be a key tool for the industry to save time and money in achieving Green Star ratings."
