Environmental Choice

The Environmental Choice New Zealand programme is owned by the New Zealand Government and administered independently by the New Zealand Ecolabelling Trust. The programme works under the principles of the ISO 14024 standard which considers the environmental impacts of products over their whole lifecycle. Environmental Choice New Zealand is also a member of the Global Ecolabelling Network.

Products having the Environmental Choice New Zealand label are recognized as having an overall environmental preference within a specific product category based on life cycle considerations. The label also represents an independent 3rd party assessment of a product against a published specification. Licensees are required to keep records and report against the specification in order to keep it current.

When it comes to thermal insulation, the Environmental Choice New Zealand specification considers environmental criteria in the following categories:

Legal requirements
Manufacturing additives
Waste management
Energy management
Packaging

In addition, there are minimum R-values required

Ceiling insulation R3.4
Wall insulation R2.5
Underfloor insulation R1.4

The CEO of Environmental Choice New Zealand, Robin Taylor, was a special guest speaker at the launch of InsulPro’s new Auckland plant in April 2010 (pictured below, with InsulPro Director Godfrey Hall). Mr Taylor congratulated InsulPro for achieving Environmental Choice certification under the category of Thermal (resistive-type) Building Insulants for the following products:

NOVAtherm ceiling R3.6
NOVAtherm wall R2.6 and R2.8
NOVAfloor R1.4 (the first underfloor insulation to receive Environmental Choice NZ Certification)

Robin Taylor and Godfrey Hall at InsulPro plant launch