Peter Zagorski is the Director of Building Services at the Housing Industry Association (HIA). He sits on a range of Standards Australia Technical Committees and oversees HIA’s involvement in over 50 others relevant to the residential building and construction industry.
 
Peter previously worked for the Victorian Building Authority and represented the Victorian Government on the Building Codes Committee with the Australian Building Codes Board.  Peter has a broad range of building and construction industry experience with over 40 years involvement in the building regulatory environment. He’s held numerous roles, including positions as municipal building surveyor, building inspector, and building control within State and Local Governments.
 
Standards Australia (SA): How did you first become involved in standards development? 
Peter Zagorski (PZ): As a building inspector and a municipal building surveyor in the early eighties and nineties, I assessed building permits and undertook inspections to ensure building construction was compliant with Australian Standards™.
 
My first interaction with standards development was as the Victorian representative on the Building Codes Committee reviewing standards for adoption into the Building Code of Australia. The first Standards Committee I participated on was when I joined the BD-038, Wet Areas In Buildings, to review AS 3740, Water proofing for domestic buildings.

I am also on the BD-013, BD-058 and BD-109 committees.  I currently coordinate HIA technical staff on other relevant Technical Committees associated with the National Construction Code (NCC).
 
SA: How do standards impact and interact with your industry?
PZ: Standards play an important part in the construction industry, particularly in the residential field. Many are referenced as ‘Deemed to Satisfy’ by the NCC which provide the technical construction methods that the building industry needs to comply with to provide safe and healthy buildings.
 
SA: Why is having access to standards important?
PZ: With over 100 standards directly referenced (and over 1000 additional secondary references) in the NCC that builders, architects, designers, engineers, consultants, and regulators use every day – access to standards through multiple mediums is essential. Being able to access standards at your fingertips now makes it easier to have the relevant and correct information.

However, having access to standards is much more than getting a copy of the standard to those who need them. More importantly, ensuring standards are written in a way that is easily understood for primary users is of critical importance.
 
SA: What is the future of standardisation in your area of work?
PZ: With the increase in new building materials, components and systems being used and developed, standards are important to establishing a uniform and consistent approach.

One such building system is the Expanded Insulation Finish Systems for Class 1 buildings being developed by the BD-109 committee which I am a part of. This is an exciting new standard that will provide the industry with certainty in design and installation.

I have also found that our meetings, held virtually (not by our choosing), are more targeted, efficient, and productive.

Chain-of-custody certified companies to benefit from AS 4707:2014 revision
 
More than 300 chain-of-custody certified companies will benefit from a review of AS 4707:2014, Chain of custody for forest products, which is expected to be published in the last quarter of 2021.
 
“The standard, in addition to delivering Responsible Wood-certified products to the market, has a tremendous impact on management processes along the timber value chain,” Simon Dorries, CEO of Responsible Wood said.
 
“The standard provides a credible system to trace and verify the origins of sustainably-grown and certified forest products through all phases of ownership, transportation, and manufacturing to the end consumer,” Mr Dorries said.
 
The AS 4707 standard reference committee and working group has also worked to align the new standard with the PEFC chain-of-custody standard released in 2020.
 
The committee comprises representatives of the Association of Accredited Certification Bodies, Australian Forest Products Association, Australian Institute of Packaging, Omega Consulting, Timber Development Association, Tasmanian Forest Products Association, the University of Melbourne, the Victorian Forest Products Association, and the Women in Forestry Network.
 
The committee is chaired by Peter Zed of Omega Consulting who holds an honours degree in forestry from ANU and has worked in the timber industry for more than 40 years.
 
The revised standard will adopt changes in the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) International chain-of-custody rules for PEFC ST 2002:2020 and trademark-requirements and PEFC ST 2001:2020 trademark rules.
 
PEFC is the world’s largest forest certification authority with more than 20,000 companies certified under its chain-of-custody standard.
 
Responsible Wood is the national governing body for PEFC in Australia with the Australian standard endorsed by and mutually recognised by PEFC International.