Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA) is developing a brand new standard for cement, concrete and concrete products. As part of the development of this standard, GECA is seeking input from industry professionals including manufacturers, construction project teams, consultants, academics and environmental organisations.
Despite its popularity in the building industry, concrete production can have a significant environmental impact, particularly during the sourcing and manufacturing stage of its life cycle. Concrete and cement industries are known for using large quantities of raw materials, water and energy, and for releasing a significant amount of CO2.
New sustainable initiatives aim to improve cement and concrete production and composition, and to lessen its environmental impact. The GECA standard seeks to support and reward these efforts to minimise impacts. The standard will also enable manufacturers to gain access to credits under green building and infrastructure rating tools, and to provide assurance to procurers and specifiers seeking products with a lower environmental impact.
The new standard covers 3 distinct sub categories - cement and supplementary cementitious materials (such as blended cements and alternative non-Portland cements), concrete (including ready-mix and concrete manufactured in temporary batching plants on site), and concrete products (such as masonry, precast concrete, pipes, roof tiles, and autoclaved cellular concrete).
The standard is open for public comment until Monday, 11 July 2016. GECA welcomes feedback from you, your organisation or others in your network to help develop this standard. More information and a draft version of the standard are available on the GECA website (www.geca.org.au).
Please email standards@geca.org.au with your feedback, or call the GECA office on (+61) 2 9699 2850.
Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA) runs Australia’s only independent, not-for-profit, multi-sector ecolabelling program and is the only Australian member of the Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN). It develops standards against which products can be independently audited by GECA’s JAS-ANZ accredited conformity assessment bodies (CAB)s. Its standards are developed following ISO 14024 principles for global best practice in ecolabelling.
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