Australian ethical labour sourcing standard
On 18 July 2018, BRE announced it is partnering with Global GreenTag International to develop a localised, Australian version of the pioneering Ethical Labour Sourcing Standard (ELS).
Global GreenTag International Pty Ltd is a third party ecolabelling, product certification, environmental product declaration (EPD) and product health declaration (PhD) program operator based in Australia. Its programs are recognised in WELL™, BREEAM International, EarthCheck®, Green Star®, LOTUS® and the Malaysian Government’s MyHIJAU program and are compliant with credit requirements in LEED® (PhDs and EPDs), and BREEAM® (EPDs).
The new standard will be developed in advance of the enactment of the Commonwealth of Australia’s Modern Slavery Act and follows enactment of the New South Wales Government’s Modern Slavery Act 2018. It has been created to recognise organisations seeking third party assurance of their responsible and ethical business practices and to provide a pathway for continuous improvement.
The Standard sets out a series of requirements for organisational management to demonstrate commitment to the principles of ethical labour sourcing as part of a holistic framework that includes criteria for evaluating the maturity of the organisation’s performance in relation to twelve issues. However, verification is based on a commitment to improve through an agreed set of objectives rather than an aggregation of the levels of maturity in the 12 issues.
Self-assessment is permitted, but a higher level can be achieved by third party verification through the online ELS platform.
David Baggs, CEO and Program Director at Global GreenTag said; “Global GreenTag is partnering with BRE to bring a mature ELS tool to Australia at a time when Modern Slavery legislation has been enacted in NSW and is likely to be introduced federally later this year or next year... It is already something Global GreenTag does at a product level and we want to be able to support companies, verifiers and the industry in general to engage with the new legislation in as cost efficient a manner possible.”
Nigel Jones, Team Leader – Sustainable Products at BRE said; “The Ethical Labour Sourcing Standard for Australia will enable any organisation to demonstrate to customers, partners and other stakeholders, their commitment to eliminating any possibility of trafficking or slavery in their supply chain. It will enable companies to go beyond compliance with the outlined reporting requirements of the Modern Slavery Bill 2018 which was introduced to the Australian Parliament at the end of June”.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
- BRE articles.
- BRE Buzz.
- BREEAM.
- Building Research Establishment.
- Construction and the Modern Slavery Act.
- Environmental product declaration.
- Ethical sourcing.
- Ethics in construction
- Expediting.
- International Ethics Standards Coalition
- Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design LEED.
- Modern slavery and the supply chain.
- Sourcing.
- Well and BREEAM align.
Issue support documents
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Issue support documents are written for named BREEAM Issues or sub-issues. More info. (ac) = awaiting content
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[edit] Management:
- BREEAM Sustainability champion
- BREEAM Environmental management
- BREEAM Considerate construction
- BREEAM Monitoring of construction site impacts
- BREEAM Aftercare support
- BREEAM Seasonal commissioning
- BREEAM Testing and inspecting building fabric
- BREEAM Life cycle cost and service life planning
- BREEAM Stakeholder consultation (ac)
- BREEAM Commissioning (ac)
- BREEAM Handover (ac)
- BREEAM Inclusive and accessible design (ac)
- BREEAM Post occupancy evaluation
[edit] Health and Wellbeing
- BREEAM Visual comfort Daylighting (partly ac)
- BREEAM Visual comfort View out
- BREEAM Visual comfort Glare control
- BREEAM Indoor air quality plan
- BREEAM Indoor air quality Ventilation
- BREEAM Thermal comfort
- BREEAM Internal and external lighting (ac)
- BREEAM Indoor pollutants VOCs (ac)
- BREEAM Potential for natural ventilation (ac)
- BREEAM Safe containment in laboratories (ac)
- BREEAM Acoustic performance
- BREEAM Safety and security (ac)
[edit] Energy
- BREEAM Reduction of energy use and carbon emissions
- BREEAM Energy monitoring
- BREEAM External lighting
- BREEAM Low carbon design
- BREEAM Passive design
- BREEAM Free cooling
- BREEAM LZC technologies
- BREEAM Energy efficient cold storage (partly ac)
- BREEAM Energy efficient transportation systems
- BREEAM Energy efficient laboratory systems
- BREEAM Energy efficient equipment (partly ac)
- BREEAM Drying space
[edit] Transport
- BREEAM Transport assessment and travel plan
- BREEAM Public transport accessibility
- BREEAM Sustainable transport measures
- BREEAM Proximity to amenities
- BREEAM Cyclist facilities
- BREEAM Alternative modes of transport (ac)
- BREEAM Maximum car parking capacity
- BREEAM Travel plan
- BREEAM Home office (ac)
[edit] Water
- BREEAM Water consumption
- BREEAM Water efficient equipment
- BREEAM Water monitoring
- BREEAM Water leak detection (ac)
[edit] Materials
- BREEAM Hard landscaping and boundary protection
- BREEAM Responsible sourcing of materials
- BREEAM Insulation
- BREEAM Designing for durability and resilience
- BREEAM Life cycle impacts
- BREEAM Material efficiency (ac)
[edit] Waste
- BREEAM Construction waste management
- BREEAM Recycled aggregates
- BREEAM Speculative floor & ceiling finishes
- BREEAM Adaptation to climate change
- BREEAM Operational waste
- BREEAM Functional adaptability (ac)
[edit] Land Use and Ecology
- BREEAM Site Selection
- BREEAM Ecological value of site
- BREEAM Protection of ecological features
- BREEAM Minimising impact on existing site ecology
- BREEAM Enhancing site ecology
- BREEAM Long term impact on biodiversity (ac)
[edit] Pollution
- BREEAM Impact of refrigerants
- BREEAM NOx emissions
- BREEAM Flood risk management (ac)
- BREEAM Surface water run-off (ac)
- BREEAM Reduction of night time light pollution (partly ac)
- BREEAM Reduction of noise pollution
Once an ISD has been initially created the '(ac)' marker can be removed
This particular index is based around the structure of the New Construction and RFO schemes.