Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA) has recently been recognised by two major international sustainability organisations after joining the United Nations Global Compact and also receiving official acceptance from the United States Environmental Protection Agency for three standards.
GECA’s CEO, Kate Harris, described the achievements as “two big wins for GECA and for manufacturers certified under our ecolabel”.
The UN Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative. It requires participants to align strategies and operations with principles around human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption, and to take actions that advance societal goals.
Joining the UN Global Compact demonstrates GECA’s commitment to these aims, and reflects GECA’s level of engagement with other stakeholders to support even wider adoption of sustainability-focussed business practices. As of February 2017, over 9,000 companies and 3,000 non-businesses from around the world are signatories to the Compact.
“We’re proud to be a participant of the Global Compact and stand alongside so many other organisations who are demonstrating their commitment to turning sustainability principles into action,” said Kate Harris.
In a separate event, three of GECA’s standards have been officially accepted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as part of the EPA’s Recommendations of Specifications, Standards, and Ecolabels for US Federal Government procurement.
GECA’s Paints and Coatings, Floor Coverings, and Furniture, Fittings & Foam standards fulfilled the requirements of the Guidelines Pilot Assessment.
“We’re also thrilled to have three of our standards included by the US EPA in their official recommendations, as we know this will be of huge benefit to our licensees in terms of international procurement.
The application process for that approval was incredibly detailed and robust, and to make it through to ultimately be included in those recommendations is a testament to the credibility of our scheme,” said Kate Harris.
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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