Environmentally Sustainable Design Specifications

All internally applied paint, adhesive and sealant products must not exceed the following TVOC limits:

*Most adhesives and sealants are addressed in the ‘General purpose adhesives and sealants’ category of the table above, unless they clearly belong in the other specialised product categories.

Ultra low VOC - Ultra low VOC paints have a maximum TVOC content of 5g/L. These should be used where possible.

Lead Content in Paints - Industrial surface paints and coatings shall not contain lead nor lead components.

VOC Levels in Carpets - All carpets shall comply with the Total VOC limits specified in the table below.

* Both limits should be met when testing against ASTM D5116

Formaldehyde emission limits for engineered wood products*

Provide certification of the quantities of all engineered wood products delivered to site, and manufacturer/supplier certification to demonstrate compliance with the specified emissions limits.

* Engineered wood products include particleboard, plywood, Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF), Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL), High-Pressure Laminate (HPL), Compact Laminate and decorative overlaid wood panels. Timber veneers are excluded. Emission limits do not apply to formwork

Reuse and Recycled content

Preference must be given to reuse of furniture. Where it is proposed to purchase new furniture written justification must be provided detailing why it is not feasible to reuse furniture.

Preference shall be given to the selection of construction materials which are recycled or have a recycled content. These may include:

• Steel products
• Timber products
• Carpets
• Insulation
• Concrete and aggregates

Post-consumer recycled content is preferred.

Product Certification

Preference shall be given to the selection of construction materials and fit-out materials which have a third-party green certification and/or an Environmental Product Declaration. As a minimum:

• All internal blinds, flooring and carpets must be certified under a Recognised Product Certification Scheme under the Green Building Council of Australia’s Responsible Products Program*.
• All internally applied paints and plasterboard must have an Environment Product Declaration certified in accordance with ISO 14025.
• All new furniture must be:
  • certified under a Recognised Product Certification Scheme under the Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Building Council of Australia’s Responsible Products Program*; or
  • demonstrate compliance with the following:
    • eco preferred content >20% by mass
    • durability >15 years
    • product stewardship commitment
    • ISO14001:2004 certified manufacturing process covering waste minimisation, energy, emissions and waste minimisation
    • modular in design
    • designed for disassembly

* At the time of publishing the following schemes were recognized under the Green Building Council of Australia’s Exposure to Toxins Certification Scheme Index:

• Carpet Institute of Australia Limited - Environmental Certification Scheme
• Global GreenTag GreenRate 
• Australasian Furnishing Research and Development Institute - Green Tick
• Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA)
• Environmental Choice New Zealand

Timber

At least 95% (by cost) of all timber used in the building and construction works shall be certified by a forest certification scheme that is recognised under the Green Star Interiors 20.1A Certified Timber 'Essential Criteria' for Forest Certification, such as FSC International and PEFC - Accredited Forest Certification Schemes. See Revised Timber Credit - Materials Category - Green Building Council Australia (GBCA).

Any certified timber used in the project shall be supplied in accordance with the Chain of Custody (CoC) rules of the respective forest certification scheme (e.g. relevant CoC certificates or invoices including a relevant CoC code or serial number).

Steel

At minimum of 95% of all steel used must be from a Responsible Steel Maker with ISO 14001 Accreditation.

The steel should be either:

• certified under the ACRS Sustainable Construction Steel certification scheme; OR
• certified under GECA SSPv1.0i-2019 Steel and Steel Products; OR
• certified under the Responsible Steel standard; OR
• sourced from sites that are certified under the Responsible Steel standard; OR
• all climate change and greenhouse gas emissions criteria of the Responsible Steel standard are fulfilled

PVC

At least 90% of all common uses of PVC in the project shall be either PVC products sourced from manufacturers which meet the GBCA's Best Practice Guidelines for PVC, in accordance with Green Star Interiors 20.2B; OR are products that do not contain PVC.

Common uses of PVC products for this project include cables, pipes, flooring, and blinds.

Insulation

All insulation* used shall have an Ozone Depleting Potential (ODP) of zero in both its manufacture and composition.

* Insulation covers building services (i.e. refrigerant pipe work, ductwork, hot & cold water pipes, water tanks, etc.) and building fabric including walls, roofs, floor, window frames, doors, cavity closures and lintels.

All products and materials used in construction shall be selected in accordance with the following requirements.

Third Party Certification

Preference shall be given to the selection of construction materials which have a third-party green certification.

The following products as a minimum shall be selected to have a third-party green certification:

• Internal blinds
• Flooring
• Carpets

These products shall be certified in accordance with one of the certification schemes assessed against the GBCA Framework for Product Certification:

• Carpet Institute of Australia Limited, Environmental Certification Scheme (ECS) v1.2
• Global GreenTag GreenRate
• Australasian Furnishing Research and Development Institute, Sustainability Standard for Commercial Furniture - AFRDI Standard 150
• Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA), including six standards

Environmental Product Declarations (EPD)

Preference shall be given to the selection of construction materials which have an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) certified in accordance with ISO 14025.

The following products as a minimum shall be selected to have a certified EPD:

• Internally applied paints
• Plasterboard

The manufacturer of the products shall have an EPD for the product/material certified in accordance with ISO 14025 and published on the EPD website.

Product Stewardship

Preference shall be given to the selection of construction materials where the manufacturer of the products provides a contractual agreement to take back the product at the end of its service life for reuse, recycling or reprocessing.

Purchasing of internal furniture must be through selection of low emission internal finishes and furniture. Where furniture is replaced it shall have an approved Eco-Rating which may include:

• Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA)
• Carpet Institute of Australia Limited, Environmental Certification Scheme (ECS) v1.2
• Global GreenTag GreenRate
• Australasian Furnishing Research and Development Institute, Sustainability Standard for Commercial Furniture - AFRDI Standard 150
• Environmental Choice New Zealand (ECNZ)
  

Alternatively and where an approved Eco-Rating is not in place, the supplier must be able to document compliance with the following:

• Eco Preferred Content >20% by mass
• Durability >15 Years
• Product Stewardship Commitment
• ISO 14001:2004 certified manufacturing process covering waste minimisation, energy, emissions and waste minimisation.
• Modular in Design
• Designed for disassembly

Commissioning

The Contractor and appropriate sub-contractors must pre-commission, commission and monitor quality for all building services in accordance with the requirements of the following:

1. ASHRAE Guideline 1-1996 for Mechanical services, and
2. CIBSE Commissioning Codes – A: Air Distribution Systems; B: Boilers; C: Automatic Controls; L: Lighting, M: Commissioning Management; R: Refrigerant Systems; W: Water Distribution Systems for other services; or both AIRAH DA27 and DA28.

Commissioning is an integral part of the project delivery process.

Lighting

All lights must be flicker free.

All lighting systems shall be provided with daylight and/or occupancy sensors (except where constant artificial lighting is required for functional reasons).

Preference shall be given to the use of LED light sources. Tungsten filament or halogen light sources are not permitted.

The lighting design must accurately address the perception of colour in the space. The project team shall support their justification by ensuring their selection complies with the guidance provided in Table 7.2 in AS 1680.1:2006.

Lighting levels must be appropriate to the tasks performed in the space in accordance with:

HVAC

The building's thermal comfort shall not exceed PMV +/-1 (demonstrated through thermal comfort modelling)

OR

The following requirements shall be achieved:

• Dry bulb temperature in the space is controlled between 19-22⁰C for winter and 24-26⁰C for summer*
• Relative humidity in the space is controlled between 40-60%
• HVAC has separate zones as required for distinct activities and with independent temperature controls and sensors

* Consideration may be given to the use of widened temperature set points in order to reduce the size of HVAC plant required, and to reduce associated ongoing energy consumption.

The following requirements apply to new or refurbished HVAC systems:

• All HVAC system compressors shall have a minimum Coefficient of Performance (COP) of 3.7 and a minimum Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) of 3.24.
• All split air conditioning units shall have the highest available energy star rating at the time of purchase.
• All refrigerants used in the project are to have an Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) of zero and a GWP of less than 10.
• All ducted air conditioning systems shall include an automatically controlled economy cycle allowing additional outside air to be used for free cooling when ambient conditions allow.
• HVAC systems must be designed for ease of internal cleaning and full flush capabilities:
  • Avoid in-duct coils and filters
  • Provide access panels at changes of direction
  • All air diffusers to have removable cores
  • Reduce flexible duct lengths as far as possible
  • Incorporate 100% fresh air full flush provisions
• Where required, all existing ductwork proposed for re-use should be inspected and thoroughly cleaned of all dust and debris prior to re-commissioning.

Metering and Monitoring

An effective metering strategy must be developed and implemented to ensure that, as far as reasonably practical, all electricity, gas, and water consumption is metered.

Appropriate metering must be installed on all new buildings and as far as reasonably practical in refurbishment works and new leases, to enable energy and water use to be effectively monitored. The following should be provided:

• Separate lighting loads per primary functional area, per floor, and for any loads over 20kVA
• Separate power loads per primary functional area, functional system, per floor, and for any loads over 20kVA
• Separate gas loads e.g. boilers, hot water heaters, generators
• Separate water loads per primary functional area, per floor, and consumption (e.g. irrigation, HVAC, bathrooms, potable water use)
• Separate water supplies. e.g., rainwater, potable water, recycled water
• ‘Smart’ meters to provide interval data

New meters and automatic monitoring systems must be commissioned and validated per the most current ‘Validating non-utility meters for NABERS ratings’ protocol.

Equipment

All energy consuming appliances and equipment (e.g. fridges, TV's, and computers) shall be be within one star of the highest available rating under the Australian Government's "Energy Rating" labelling system at the time of purchase.

All water consuming appliances (dishwashers, etc) shall be be within one star of the highest available rating under the Australian Government's Water Efficient Labelling Scheme (WELS) at the time of purchase.

Printers and copiers

Select printers that allow the following functions:

• Double sided printing and scanning.
• Long life printing drums and toner cartridges.
• Ability to use refilled toner or ink cartridges.
• Toner or ink-saving modes, such as draft, black and white only.
• Manual energy saving button and programmable power management features
• Consider if a multifunction device (MDF) is more cost effective and have lower environmental impact than individual pieces of equipment.
• Choose equipment with an emissions certificate to ECMA-328 to reduce toxic emissions.

Select efficient computers:

• Prioritise laptops over desktop computers where practical.
• Choose LED monitors.
• Choose those with the ability to be automatically powered down when not in use for a long time period or add power sensing and shut-off devices where possible.
• Incorporate video conferencing facilities into all new office projects to reduce the need for travel.

Water Fixtures

All fixtures and fittings installed to have the following minimum water efficiencies, as measured using AS/NZS6400:2005 Water-efficient products-Rating and labelling:

Waste and recycling

Adequate space and facilities must be provided for the separation, recycling and safe disposal of:

• Paper/ cardboard
• Organics
• 10c recyclables and/or commingled recycling
• General waste (destined for landfill or energy from waste)
• Any other single waste stream that is expected to represent >5% of total annual waste

Justification must be provided where it is not proposed to separate the above waste streams.

Agencies should consider providing additional collection facilities to enable effective recycling of other waste streams (takeaway coffee cups, printer ink and toner, batteries etc)

EV Charging Infrastructure

Where the fitout includes provision of car parking for SA Government fleet vehicles, sufficient electric vehicle charging infrastructure must be provided to meet the agency’s projected demand.  Specifications for EV charging infrastructure must have regard to the SA Government EV Charging Infrastructure Guidelines.