Pixel Building Earns Australia’s First FSC Full Project Certification

Completed in July 2010, the Pixel building claims multiple other green building firsts. It is the first carbon neutral building built in Australia, featuring wind turbines and photovoltaic cells that over time will generate enough energy on-site than required for its construction and operation. Moreover, the building was the first to achieve a perfect score under the Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star Rating System (Office Design v3) and was designed to earn the highest Platinum score under LEED in the world. Pixel has set the bar for green building in Australia and ranks among the world’s most innovative green buildings.

“Earning Full FSC Project certification allows Grocon to demonstrate that they are taking a leadership position in supporting responsible forest practices,” said Nick Capobianco, who performed the audits for Scientific Certification Systems, the independent third party that conducted the assessment.

Project certification allows one-off projects to achieve the widely recognized FSC certification for responsibly harvested wood. In order to earn FSC Full Project certification, builders are required to source at least half of their wood from sources that are FSC certified or verified as post-consumer reclaimed, and the remaining wood used in the project must be verified as FSC Controlled Wood or other reclaimed wood. For The Pixel Building, Grocon sourced sixty percent of its wood from FSC Certified responsibly managed forests with the balance of wood from post-consumer reclaimed and other reclaimed sources.

The assessment included an intensive review of plans for wood use, audits of sales documents, and on-site audits which verified that The Pixel Building met these requirements, making it the first commercial office building outside Britain to earn full project certification.

Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) has been providing global leadership in third-party sustainability and environmental certification, auditing, testing and standards development for more than 25 years. SCS programs span a wide range of industries including green building, product manufacturing, food and agriculture, forestry, retailing and more. SCS is one of the world’s leading FSC certifiers and one of its founding members.

www.scscertified.com/