The first Eco Labeling Standards meeting was held in Sydney on 27 September 2007.

A Technical Working Group has been formed with industry members from the stone and tile sectors.

Several ASAA board members are part of the group.

A full morning was devoted to formatting an outline of how this standard will be effective and what criteria to include.

The working group initially used the EU Eco Labeling Standards as their road map, and then discussed the inclusion of more Australian-related areas. It is anticipated that a draft standard will be released prior to Christmas.

SAI Global has published a public comment Draft 07319 for the revision of AS 4226, Guidelines for Safe Housing Design at: http://www.saiglobal.com/shop/script/FreeDownload.asp?DocN=MSWD07319ATCRD

“This edition has been updated throughout and includes information about attachments to buildings including the installation of basketball rings, laundry chutes, grabrail fixing rainwater tanks, hot water, stairs design and Slip Resistant Flooring.”

The draft retains a slightly modified table where stone, marble and glazed ceramic tile are all stated to have very poor wet slip resistance.

The Australian Stone Advisory Association representative and chair of BD-094 Slip Resistance of Flooring Surfaces, Richard Bowman is also the author of Handbook 197 An Introductory Guide to the Slip Resistance of Pedestrian Surface Material. Richard notes that the new draft recommends that kitchens, bathrooms and laundries should have an oil wet R10 Slip Resistance classification.

Richard will prepare a set of comments pertaining to the draft which will be submitted to ASAA and the Australian Tile Council (ATC). Both bodies will determine whether they accept Richard’s comments as a basis for their response, or if they wish to add further comment.

Members of ASAA and the ATC have the right to express individual comments. However, Richard Bowman recommends that these comments should be made through the respective association in preference to bombarding the project manager.

ASAA comments can be emailed to: webmaster@asaa.com.au

September edition of Discovering Stone contains three new entries in the Australian Stone Architectural Awards, which are organised by the Australian Stone Advisory Association (ASAA) and judged by members of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA), who also assisted in the establishment of the simple entry criteria.

There are six categories:

• Best Commercial Interior
• Best Commercial Exterior
• Best Civic Project
• Best Export Project
• Best Residential Project
• Best Sculpture/Public Art Project

Criteria for Entry

• The prime stone featured must be Australian.
• The project must include an Australian architect, who will be the principal award recipient.
• The project must exhibit good design values.
• Projects must be nominated by the architect or the stone supplier in consultation with the architect.

Adjudication Process
All entries will be placed on large concept boards placed on the mezzanine level of the Dome above the Full Frontal Tile & Stone Expo (FFTSE) floor and adjacent to the Architectural/Eco Labelling Seminar Room. Each board will feature stone samples, large images and descriptive text. A representative of ASAA and three adjudicators appointed by RAIA will determine the winners in each category.

Presentation
Each category winner will receive a framed certificate and a valuable gift. The Premier Award winner, the entry deemed to be the best of all the entries, will receive a carved stone artefact.

The awards will be presented at a Gala awards dinner in the adjacent Southee Complex on Friday, April 18.

Since the launch of new ASAA website in March the traffic has been increase almost 300%.

On Tuesday August 14 Petar Johnson of Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA) and Richard Bowman addressed a gathering of more than 50 members of the tile & stone industries and various specifiers in relation to the creation of an ECO labelling standard for tile and stone.

Following that meeting ASAA has nominated 5 representatives to sit on the GECA standards committee. They are:

Ian Lamble: ASAA Chairman , Director of Melocco Stone

Gary Hargreaves: Gosford Quarries – Export & Project Manager

Jim Mann: Director of Stone initiatives and material testing

Richard Mackenzie: Principal of Ocean + Merchant, Importers of stone & tile

Richard Bowman: Principal of Intertile Research

Please select the following image to view the latest advertisement for Australian Stone & ASAA that appears in the current edition of Architectural Review.