Ergonomics and Green Star Certification

Green Star is Australia’s trusted mark of quality for the design, construction and operation of sustainable buildings, fit-outs and communities. From an ergonomic perspective it ensures the design or selection of work settings, equipment and furniture is shown to address the ergonomic needs of the user specific to that work setting. These requirements differ depending on the size of the fitout:
 For fitouts greater than 500 m2 Gross Floor Area, the project team is required to engage a certified ergonomist to provide advice and recommendations to the project on how to meet the ergonomic needs of the user.
 For fitouts less than 500 m2 Gross Floor Area, the project team can produce a short report detailing the ergonomic considerations made using the Performance Oriented Ergonomic Checklist For Computer (VDT) Workstations, produced by Cornell University for office fitouts. For non-office fitouts, an alternative recognised standard (see Guidance Section) may be used.

https://new.gbca.org.au/news/gbca-news/new-world-working/

For this credit, the nominated area is all primary spaces and one (1) point is awarded where the design team can demonstrate that the work settings in the nominated area address the ergonomic needs of the specific work setting user in accordance with 15.1, and information is provided in accordance with 15.2 to support continued ergonomic use.

To achieve the credit Certified Professional Ergonomist (Certified by the Human Factors Society of Australia) must be used to contribute to and validate the design.

For the furniture and equipment to be considered ergonomic, the ergonomic characteristics must be permanent attributes of the item. For example, stating that a monitor is height-adjustable because it can be placed on top of a box does not address the ergonomic needs of the user.
The ergonomics of furniture and equipment must address, amongst other things, adjustability, size and comfort. Equipment placed near or on work settings, including specialised equipment must be taken into account. Common equipment that must be addressed in work settings includes telecommunication equipment, computers, keyboards, screens, cashier registers, and medical or laboratory equipment.