Up to 60% off all ex-showroom furniture* including

Engelbrechts Chairik chairs
Carl Hansen Wishbone chairs
Fritz Hansen Swan chairs
Fritz Hansen Series 7 chairs
Hay Ray chairs
Offecct Bond chairs
Extremis Extempore and Picnik tables

email: janine@corporateculture.com.au
call: 03 9654 8522

31 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Monday-Friday 8.30am - 5.30pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm

*Discount applies to current RRP only. Excludes lighting and accessories. Until stocks last.

http://www.gbca.org.au/media-centre/gbca-media-releases/geca-recognised-under-gbcas-product-certification-scheme-assessment-framework/3123.htm

In 2007, Corporate Culture was among many furniture and textile suppliers who felt forced to take the highly expensive route of having their products certified by Good Environmental Choice Australia.

It appeared at the time, that this was the only way to assure the market that our products were of the highest environmental standards and met the criteria for being included in Green Star rated buildings. The Green Building Council had effectively given GECA a monopoly over the certification of furniture.

Although we were still able to use the notorious Greenstar calculator to prove the environmental performance of our designs, the time to collate all the required documentation from our suppliers proved virtually impossible. Likewise, very few interior designers had the time to gather mountains of supporting documentation, especially when they could choose a GECA rated piece of furniture instead, which came with an automatic 100% score and a single certificate as evidence.

Like many others, we were shocked as we undertook the certification process through GECA and discovered the huge fees and royalty charges involved. For us, as an Australian, owner-operated business, the ongoing royalty payments to GECA prevented us from having more than one of our product collections certified. We also found that the GECA certification process failed to take into consideration key facts regarding our furniture designs. For example, one of the key reasons our furniture is environmentally preferable is that it is designed to last a lifetime and will never end up in land fill. Durability of products was not tested by GECA, nor has it been recognised as an indicator of environmental performance by the GBCA. These and other issues made it clear that GECA only looked at certain elements of the product's life cycle and didn't take a wholistic approach to the certification of the design.

In the end, we decided that our Smooth table would be the most straight forward product to certify (given that it is designed and manufactured in Australia and already rated well on the Greenstar calculator for environmental performance). Unfortunately, paying to have other environmentally sustainable designs certified by GECA, such as Hans Wegner's FSC certified, handcrafted chairs and Arne Jacobsen's timeless classics, involved sending a GECA rep to Denmark and was prohibitively expensive.

Finally, in June 2009, as a result of extensive dialogue with Green Star stakeholders and industry professionals, the Green Building Council revised its Assessment Framework for product certification Schemes, meaning that the current GECA certification process and eco label will, (at the end of July 2010), no longer be valid. In doing so, the GBCA is now receiving applications for new frameworks from different, independent certification bodies, thereby removing the monopoly that GECA once held.

The GBCA has announced it will continue to recognise GECA certified products during a transition period from 30 June 2009 to 1 July 2010. GECA certified products will only continue to be recognised after the transition period provided that GECA complies with the full scope of the new Framework.

The following excerpt is taken from the GBCA website:

The new framework has been designed to:
    * clarify best practice benchmarks and establish expectations for manufacturers and suppliers of fitout products, as well as for the certification schemes that are recognised through Green Star
    * reduce the costs of product certification for manufacturers and suppliers
    * reduce the costs and commercial barriers associated with Green Star fitouts.

No single certification body or organisation will be recognised above others. Instead, a set of best practice criteria and benchmarks have been established, against which all schemes seeking recognition within Green Star will be measured.

Corporate Culture applauds the GBCA for re-designing the framework and has already progressed with plans to have our collections certified by Ecospecifier's GreenTag program (currently the only eco-certification program recognised by the GBCA).

For more information please follow this link:

Green Building Council - Furniture Framework

To request a brochure, images or more information on this collection, please don't hesitate to contact us

To request a brochure, images or more information on this collection, please don't hesitate to contact us

Pieces included in the display:

Caravaggio pendants, table lamp and floor lamp, designed by Cecilie Manz for Lightyears

Regina II easy chair designed by Paolo Rizzatto for Poltrona Frau

Mex Cube modular sofa designed by Piero Lissoni for Cassina

Esedra ottoman designed by Monica Förster for Poltrona Frau

Beatrice chair designed by Monica Förster for Poltrona Frau

Bob side table designed by Jean-Marie Massaud for Poltrona Frau

As always, Magis presented an impressive show with a huge range of innovative and unique pieces. Thomas Heatherwick's Spun chair entices you to have fun while you sit and also examine the concept of creating furniture that acts as sculpture.

Cassina displayed Le Corbusier's classic LC range in striking and unexpected new colour combinations. Their Canapo lounge designed by Franco Albini was a stand out piece that explored new ways of working with timber.

Included in Cappellini's colourful new range was their latest barstool, Alodia, by young New York based designer, Todd Bracher.

Poltrona Frau reworked some contemporary classics such as the award winning Archibald chair designed by prolific designer, Jean-Marie Massaud, which is now available as a high-back easy chair.

More information on our new designs from Milan will be available soon.

Making use of his superior craftsmanship skills, Wegner created a sophisticated construction which exceeded the capabilities of the production department at the time. Therefore, the chair was pulled from production until 1989 when Erik Jørgensen was contacted by Wegner in the hopes of bringing Oxchair back to life. Today Oxchair stands as a sculptural manifestation of the very best of Danish design. The result is an scupltural, organic piece that presents itself to the beholder as if formed from one single block.

To celebrate the occasion of the 50th anniversary, a limited edition series of Oxchairs has been put into production, upholstered with 3 exclusive vegetable leathers of the highest quality. The chairs will be numbered and marked with a special jubilee tag.

The buyers of a jubilee Oxchair will also be invited to visit the Erik Jørgensen factory in Svendborg to see how the Oxchair is still being produced to the same high standards of craftsmanship from 1960. Besides the factory visit, the buyer is invited to stay one night at a hotel in Svendborg. We hope that many will welcome the limited jubilee Oxchair edition.

As the daughter of two ceramicists, Cecilie Manz grew up with an appreciation of traditional Danish crafts.
Her passion for design led her to the Institute of Product Design in Helsinki where she completed her degree. After graduating, Cecilie then opened her own design studio and began creating designs that have been met with great success and numerous awards, including the IF Product Design Award and the Danish Design Award.

Corporate Culture is proud to be a distributor of her table design, EssayTM, manufactured by Fritz Hansen and her lighting designs, Caravaggio, Brancusi and Mondrian, manufactured by Lightyears. Please click the following links for more information on these products:

Essay Table  Carravagio  Brancusi  Mondrian

Cecilie will be visiting the Corporate Culture showrooms between the 26th and 30th of April.
Contact your nearest Corporate Culture showroom for more information:

Sydney | 21-23 Levey St Chippendale NSW 2008 | 02 9690 0077
Melbourne | 31-35 Flinders Ln Melbourne VIC 3000 | 03 96548522
Brisbane | 925 Ann St Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 | 07 3852 4220

Corporate Culture would like to thank all who entered the Design Journey competition, and a special thanks to judges Robert Breda from APR Detail Joinery, Giulio Cappellini from Cappellini, Adam Goodrum from Adam Goodrum Design, Paul McGillick from Indesign and Neale Whitaker from Belle who helped judge the winning design.