Tower 8 is an exciting new development in Adelaide’s city centre precinct, which sits on the North Eastern corner of Franklin and Bentham Streets and acts as a southern gateway to the City Central Precinct. Completed in September 2012, GECA licensee Studform was selected to complete the aluminium partitions, ornate commercial doors and washroom cubicle packages.

One of GECA’s Conformance Assessment Bodies (CABs) — BSI incorporating NCS International — which audits against GECAs standards, has chosen to fit out their new office space with a selection of GECA certified products.

The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) is planning to expand an existing Assessment Framework, meaning more GECA standards may be recognised next year. This new expansion would enable adhesives and paints to be recognised for fitout submissions, and cleaning products to be recognised by the Green Star Performance tool. More GECA certified products may therefore support Green Star developments achieve their Green Star rating.

The second annual Australian Sustainability Conference & Exhibition took place on Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th October and was a thought-provoking and engaging event bringing together leading practitioners from around the country. The Hon. Greg Hunt provided the opening address and spoke on the theme of turning vision to action. His address was the first major presentation outlining the government's sustainability agenda.

The recently completed Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in north-east Melbourne is a holistically responsive design solution to the varied and intricate facets of cancer care. The centre was founded by Olivia Newton-John, herself a high-profile cancer survivor. She brought her own understanding and experience of patients' needs to the design.

Comseat specialises in furniture items that are suitable for commercial fitouts including healthcare, industrial and office environments. The full ranges of Scorpion chairs, Block Tub ottomans and Spirit lounges have now been approved as sustainably preferable. All Comseat’s products are Green Star applicable making them eligible for Green Star projects.

Interviews conducted by The Bravery is Here show that Australia’s leading climate change business experts are urging corporate Australia to continue to mitigate climate risk and environmental impact. This information comes following the launch of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report which was released on Friday 27 Sep, and ahead of Australia’s largest business and government sustainability event of the year — the Australian Sustainability Conference.

Mark Perry Business Furniture has added four products to its GECA licence after passing the audit process; including the Web Stool, Web Chair, Nett Stool and Nett Chair.

GECA licensee Deb Group has achieved certification for five of its skin care products after being audited against the Personal Care Standard 2013, which was developed earlier this year.

Australian Workstation Manufacturers (AWM) lately provided its GECA certified Monorail workstation over two floors of The White Agency’s primely located Sydney office at 1 Kent Street. The Monorail workstation achieved GECA certification in 2012 and is nearly 100 per cent recyclable. It is manufactured in AWM’s factory in Alexandria, which is ISO14001 certified meaning the factory meets environmental management systems standards.

GECA is proud to announce that it is a supporting partner of this year’s much anticipated Home Design Magazine Australian Living Green Interior Awards. The awards highlight those who choose to implement green interior products into their homes, offices, shops, educational facilities, hotels, restaurants and bars and are about celebrating designers' and individuals' commitment to sustainability. The awards are now open for entries.

This week we welcome Abax Systems Pty Ltd as a new GECA licensee, which is a Sydney-based company specialising in library fit-outs, storage solutions and office furniture.

Melbourne furniture maker Jardan was recently chosen to supply a variety of colourful and contemporary GECA certified pieces for many common areas in the Science and Engineering Centre at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). The Centre is a premier research base for science, technology, engineering and mathematics in the heart of Brisbane. Jardan supplied a range of Level A GECA certified products including the Horizon and Milo sofas, Kelly and Ned armchairs and Coast ottomans.

As the dust settles on another election, for some Australian businesses, governments – along with their policies – will come and go, but those that have taken an approach of resilience and look beyond the election cycle have their business strategies intact. Typically election cycles and the period post-elections are marked by poor market performance and consumer confidence, “Uncertainty created by the election has certainly not helped support business

Good Environmental Choice Australia's CEO Rupert Posner was recently interviewed by Dynamic Business magazine for his insights into the relationship between business and sustainability. Figures from the last two years show that, despite economical and political change, businesses are still implementing sustainability policies.

Sydney Indesign was a resounding success that saw the display of an assortment of innovative and exciting designs. The main hub of the event — the Galleria — presented a number of discussions; one of which GECA was led by GECA. The discussion showed the benefits and importance of GECA as well as the demand for it from the perspective of licensees and specifiers.

The newest film from acclaimed director and producer Ridley Scott hit the big screens last year with a cameo appearance from the GECA certified Brainwash tables. Prometheus is set in the year 2089 and takes viewers on a journey not to the end of existence, but the beginning. It has been dubbed sci-fi birth as opposed to the often-seen sci-fi apocalypse. The tables appear in one of the early scenes of the film in the crew dining hall on board the Prometheus Spaceship.

If there was ever any doubt that people are full of contradictions, just spend some time with industrial designer Taku Kumazawa. The creator of the GECA certified Tipo mesh stacking chair, and CTZ tilt-top table turns out to be a bit of a rev head, admitting that he secretly covets a gas-guzzling 1970’s lime-green Porsche 911 with a whale tail.

Koskela has now achieved GECA certification for its Anders table, Forbes chair, Jake chair, Kavella table, Konverse chair, Mika stool, PBS table, Saville row and Y series table.

Direct Ergonomics and Zenith Interiors were recently chosen to be the furniture suppliers for the University of Wollongong's Sustainable Building Research Centre.