Good Environmental Choice Australia Ltd

Good Environmental Choice Australia Ltd is a non profit public company and co-manager of the Australian Good Environmental Choice Label Program. The organisation is led by an elected Board, a head office team and members of the company representing a wide cross section of Australian society.

THE BOARD

The board of Good Environmental Choice Australia was expanded to 14 members at the AGM held in Sydney on Friday 30th of May.

We welcome to the board:
James Porteous
Bobby Ali Kahn
Jack Josephson
Bill Jones
Robert Frazer
Glenn Norris
Gregory Lloyd

We would also like to welcome Edward Warcaba who was elected Chairman, and we thank Petar Johnson for his leadership as Founder and outgoing Chairman of GECA.

Details of each new board member will be uploaded soon.

Edward Warcaba B.Sc., M.Sc.(Hons), RACI, MAIOH
Chairman

Sustainability Manager, Asia Pacific
InterfaceFLOR

Ed is responsible for representing the Asia Pacific region on global corporate sustainability matters.Ed represents the Asia Pacific region on InterfaceFLOR’s Global Sustainability Council which is tasked with advising the CEO and Senior Officers on Mission Zero strategies and InterfaceFLOR’s performance towards our progress for achieving Interface’s Vision in becoming a sustainable corporation by 2020.

He is a research chemist and member of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. Ed is a qualified Occupational Hygienist and a member of the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists.

He is an active member of The Green Building Council of Australia and has served on the Technical Working Groups for all the criteria developed. Ed is a Certified Green Star Professional.

Suzanne Little B.Sc. Newcastle; MSc. Macquarie; Dip Ed. Canberra
Executive Director

Suzanne is a scientist, policy advisor, change agent and an experienced communicator. Her current roles are:

· Non-Executive Director on the Board of Sydney Metropolitan Catchment Management Authority;

· Vice President (Australia) of the Environment Institute of Australia & New Zealand.

Equipped with a chemical / geological education, Suzanne’s career spans a very broad range of leadership positions over 30 years, as the former:

· Environmental Market Development Manager, SAI Global;

· Director, Environmental Systems and Compliance, the Olympic Coordination Authority;

· Principal Consultant, Sustainability, Maunsell Australia;

· Environment Consultant to the Sydney Water Corporation Priority Sewerage Program Alliance;

· Environmental Compliance Manager, Vodafone Australia;

· Environment Project Leader, The Australian Gas Light Company; and

· Policy Officer, Electricity Commission of NSW.

As a certified Lead Environmental Auditor, Suzanne designed or implemented four Environmental Management Systems in major Australian organisations (AGL, Olympic Coordination Authority, Sydney Water’s Priority Sewerage Program and Vodafone Australia).

With twelve years experience in the NSW Government sector she has a diverse background in government policy-making. While Environment Director for the 2000 Olympics, she provided sensitive advice on environment policy to the Olympics’ Director-General. Also during the critical two-year preparation for the Sydney Games she drafted correspondence for ministerial responses on complex environmental controversies surrounding the ‘Green Games’.

It was Suzanne’s job to interpret the Environmental Guidelines and translate sustainability into practice, to enable the building of all 20 Olympic venues. In this manner she provided strategic, technical leadership for the construction of the Australian showcase of sustainability to the world.

Nick Capobianco B. Arts - Industrial Design, Grad Cert – Bus Admin, Dip Bus.
Executive Director

Nick Capobianco is an environmental marketing consultant with over 18 years experience in Product Development, Marketing and Management in the building products industry. Nick led a number of environmental marketing initiatives at The Laminex Group and is now working on the green marketing programs of other Australian and international companies. Nick is the Executive Director for Marketing & Business Development for Good Environmental Choice Australia, Chairman of GECA's marketing committee, member of the marketing committee of The Green Building Council of Australia, an FSC Chain Of Custody Auditor for the US company Scientific Certification Systems, and principal of Green Marketing Concepts.

Petar Johnson BSc. (Hons.) ANU
Founder and Director

pjohnson@geca.org.au

Petar has spent 20 years in the environmental arena working within the broadest elements of the environmental challenge in Australia. He is the founder of the Environmental Choice Australia Mark and the two management organisations Good Environmental Choice Australia Ltd and Good Environmental Choice Services Pty Ltd.

He is a member of the Board for the Australian National Centre for Sustainability and a Director of Addressing Global Warming Pty Ltd, a wind turbine establishment company

Prior to the establishment of the GEC program Petar was manager of the Environment Ministers Working Group on Product Stewardship for Electrical and Electronic Equipment in the Sustainable Industries Branch, Commonwealth Department of Environment and Water.

Petar has an ongoing interest in the associated fields of human ecology and sustainable development and in progressing social shifts towards a balance between environment and society.

Katie Patrick B. Eng.
Director

Chief Executive Officer
Green Pages Pty Ltd

Katie began her career as an environmental engineer and project manager for commercial and residential construction projects. She has been involved in a range of environmental advocacy and policy development through such roles as Vice Chair of the Property Council Sustainability Committee. She is a regular media commentator on environmental business issues and a contributor for The Age newspaper.

Katie has a fundamental objective to grow the commercial market share of products that are good for the environment and she is also a passionate advocate of the involvement of the creative arts and design in furthering the concept of "green" as a landmark brand.

Bobby Ali-Khan. B. Des. Int. Arch. UTS
Director

National Strategic Development Manager
Cavalier Bremworth Pty Limited

Bobby’s responsibilities at Cavalier Bremworth are the company’s business strategy for existing and emerging markets. This is achieved in her role across the portfolios of Environmental Sustainability Development Policy, National Marketing and Business Development in the retail and commercial carpet market sectors.

She has a consulting background both locally and internationally in business strategy, change management and workplace performance evaluation. This has been related to corporate organizational structures and facilities management specialising in business effectiveness and productivity.

Bobby’s experience spans various roles also involving creative and detailed design development, project management and workplace solutions for corporate mergers, office fitouts and base building design. She is a member of the Facility Managers Association of Australia.

Robert Frazer, MBA, BA
Director

Robert is Managing Director of building materials manufacturer Innvotech Solutions Pty Ltd. Innvotech manufactures it’s own range of proprietary flooring products that are greener, smarter and faster including the award winning and GECA certified TracLoc Flooring System for temporary installation of floor tiles. Robert has a background in senior roles across a range of industries both within Australia and overseas.

	Gregory Lloyd Director Gregory has a vast knowledge of the building material industry being involved in the family business some 35 Years ago then The Lloyds Hardware and Building Material group a public listed company before the family sold its interests. Greg is the founder and Managing Director of Stair Lock International Pty Ltd an Adelaide based manufacturer of Stair systems for the domestic and commercial building construction markets through out Australia. His company is leading the change in the Stair Manufacturing Industry to an Environmental Focus. Stair Lock unique patented manufacturing system has revolutionized the stair industry in bringing down the costs of manufacture of stairs into a commodity product at a very low cost to the industry. Stair Lock is now recognized as a leader in its field having warehousing marketing and installation divisions in Melbourne Sydney and Brisbane. Stair lock is a member of the Green Building Council and Eco Specifier and a sponsor of the Multi unit Residential Rating Tool and a stakeholder in GECA. The Stair Lock MDF E0 and E1 Stair Systems are certified under GECA Furniture and Fittings Standard STA-2006 Greg is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
	Glen Norris Director Glen currently holds the role of General Manager- Sales & Marketing for CSM Storage & Filing Solutions, and is a key member of the Management team. This role focuses on developing and delivering innovative strategies that are in line with evolving business needs of both corporate and government sectors; this has been achieved with best practise approaches to maximise the storage of a company's information assets, and delivering quality service. Glen has over 10 years experience as a Business Consultant, Mentor and Advisor for B2C and B2B markets from micro to medium size business clients & Government agencies including Business Enterprise Centres in the Sydney Metropolitan Area and workplace agencies. He continues to conduct seminars & workshops on sales & marketing, business planning and financial management and has been a Facilitator and Mentor in the Women in Business Program for over 6 years.
	James Porteous, BSc (Hons), MSc Communications Director Since 2002 James Porteous has been Managing Editor of ECOS, Australia’s research-based magazine on sustainability in industry, community and environment, published by CSIRO. Prior to that, as a former marine scientist-turned-journalist he worked in London for the prestigious international research journal Nature for 5 years as a writer and senior international project manager of website development. After a year of conservation project work with lowland gorillas in Gabon, West Africa during 2001, James returned to Melbourne in 2002. In 2007 he was seconded as a communications consultant to WWF US and SOLIDAR international to work in Sri Lanka and Thailand on post-tsunami reconstruction initiatives. James contributes a broad background in sustainability developments across corporate Australia through ECOS's national coverage and its partnership with the National Business Leaders Forum on Sustainable Development.
	Jack Josephsen B.Eng National Maintenance Products Pty Ltd Managing Director Jack is the Managing Director of National Maintenance Products Pty Ltd. (NMP) – a company that formulates, manufactures and distributes a range of niche products including industrial protective coatings, industrial and decorative seamless flooring and underwater applied coatings, adhesives and sealants. NMP was the first coating company in Australia to be eco-certified under the GECA protective coatings standard and all the brands marketed by NMP are eco-certified. Educated as an electrical engineer, Jack took on an entrepreneurial path by starting up his first R&D company in 1999, Tech Adhesives Pty Ltd. He has since expanded to encompass full manufacturing and commercialisation of products from conception to leading products in their respective niche markets. Jack brings a personal drive that challenges traditional practices and thinking, along with strong environmental philosophies, which in turn leads to constant assessment and improvement of products, procedures and services.