Greenstar Ieq-4 changes

May 7th, 2010

Over the past 2 or so years we have worked with the GBC codes for green buildings in Australia (and to a lesser extent NZ). While it is sometimes difficult to understand their reasoning for particular rulings, we support the concept and are pretty impressed with the new buildings that qualify as “greenstar”.

In the IEQ4 category, using monitor arms to assist with “daylight glare control” can provide one point. It does not sound like a lot but all the points are critical. To achieve this and gain the 500mm vertical adjustment we had to add another 165mm to our pole – we were not alone as other monitor arm manufacturers did the same. It did not make a lot of sense and once installed gave the impression of a floor fill of trees as the monitor arm often rose (more like stuck up in the air) above most of the workstation screens.

Ad hoc comments from users and our own experience suggested that users were not adjusting the monitor arm to such a height – it was just a waste of material which is rather ironic for a green standard.

So the most recent ruling (or correction) from Green Building Australia has removed this requirement and talks about 18cm of vertical displacement with a 19″ screen. This is far more sensible (not sure about their wording in the correction) and gains our full support.

It certainly allows the user to choose from a greater range of products.

Learn more about our green star and environmental considerations.