Revised GBCA Green Star PVC credit released for comment

The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) is taking steps to recognise environmental advances made by polyvinyl chloride (PVC) manufacturers across Australia, in order to continue to drive production and use of best-practice materials.

A revised GBCA Green Star PVC credit has been released for a five-week public comment period, following an extensive 18-month review.

The GBCA constantly reviews Green Star credits across all nine of its rating categories, listening to feedback and studying the results of assessments, to ensure that each credit evolves with the industry.

The PVC credit, as applied over the past five years, has encouraged the minimisation of all PVC use in green buildings.

The revised PVC credit sets out key best practice criteria to help project teams understand which products have a reduced environmental impact. Under the revised credit, projects will be able to claim two points towards their Green Star rating if the project’s flooring, cable, pipe and conduit - which together account for the majority of PVC use in buildings - meet the GBCA’s Best Practice Guidelines.

These guidelines establish best-practice criteria throughout the life cycle of PVC products, covering:

• Chlorine (production of materials for PVC);
• Vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) (production of materials for PVC);
• Waste, water, air and product emission thresholds for ethylene dichloride (EDC), VCM, and PVC resin(manufacture of PVC);
• Stabilisers and plasticisers (manufacture of PVC); and
• End of life product stewardship (disposal and recycling of PVC).

The revised PVC credit can be viewed on the GBCA website.

The public comment period will be open until 19 February 2010.