Award-winning product designer David Trubridge and thinkstep are first to register an EPD in the new Australasian Programme
Internationally renowned product designer David Trubridge and sustainability expert thinkstep have announced the registration of the first Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) under the Australasian EPD® Programme.
EPDs are verified documents that provide information about the environmental footprint of a product. They are developed according to international standards, third-party verified and earn points under green building rating systems such as Green Star (Australia), LEED (USA) and BREEAM (UK).
“Having top New Zealand designer David Trubridge and thinkstep to kick off EPD registrations is fantastic”, comments Bryan King, spokesperson of the recently launched Australasian EPD® Programme.
“It’s a great credit to our brand that we were the first to register an EPD under the new Australasian Programme and within the same month won the Red Dot Award for two of our environmentally conscious lighting designs,” says David Trubridge. The Red Dot award is one of the most prestigious design awards in the world.
Although EPDs have become a standard part of decision-making elsewhere in the world they are relatively new to New Zealand and Australia. “EPDs are often perceived as an expensive tool only for larger manufacturers. thinkstep’s efficient tools and processes now enable SMEs like David Trubridge to succeed in the rapidly growing green building market worldwide,” says Barbara Nebel, Managing Director of thinkstep. According to the Green Building Market Report 2014, over 50% of Australian and New Zealand architects attribute sales growth to their involvement in green building.
“After re-designing our leading lighting designs to be kitset to minimise our footprint, the logical next step was to communicate our environmental credentials through an EPD,” says David. The EPD was produced and registered in less than 3 months so that it could be used for marketing at the recent Milan Design Week.