Buildings and construction are responsible for a third of global emissions. The International Energy Agency has warned that, if we are to achieve net zero by 2050, all new buildings will need to be net zero by 2030 – a big leap from where we currently are.
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So, as Australia prepares to deliver over a million new homes, it’s never been more urgent to decarbonise the residential sector. Every house that gets built without consideration of its upfront and whole-of-life carbon footprint is potentially locking in decades of emissions.
The good news is there are already practical, design-led solutions that can address this.
And now, for the first time ever, a new report from the Australian Zero Carbon Housing Challenge has demonstrated that these solutions are working, in the real world. It’s an important reminder for policymakers about what we need to do – at scale – to achieve meaningful emissions reduction and hit our net zero targets, in a way that benefits everybody.
Findings
This new report looked at the whole-of-life carbon emissions of a residence – from building it, living in it, maintaining it, renovating it, and, eventually, demolishing it.
It found, across more than 330 homes, an average upfront carbon saving of 40 per cent and approximately 85,000 tonnes of whole-of-life carbon carbon saved across participating homes compared to the Australian Residential Benchmark (equivalent to planting half a million trees, or more than 1,500 trees per home).
It also found that we can get the strongest carbon reductions by acting early and making good design decisions, before a house is built. That’s things like how big the home is, what it’s made out of, and how energy and water efficient it is?
When building new homes, we can make smart decisions about which materials we use, where they come from, and how much of them we use.
Architects have known for some time that we can design housing in a way that reduces emissions. None of the techniques highlighted in the report should be controversial, nor are they unusual.
But the key difference is that now we have compelling national evidence that shows that these techniques are working – not hypothetically or on paper, but in the real world, in real homes that people are living in. They are tested, scalable techniques that work for Australia’s economy and climate – not a novel or obscure approach that might have worked somewhere on the other side of the world.
Affordability and good design go hand in hand
One major takeaway from the report is that good design can deliver quality, affordable housing.
More than half of the homes modelled have been delivered to market through affordability programs.
For example, the Ginninderry Flexi-Living series of nearly 150 homes in north Canberra, delivered to market through a public-private partnership between the Suburban Land Agency (ACT government) and property developers Riverview Developments, halved their whole-of-life carbon footprint on average relative to the benchmark, through compact and flexible design, rooftop solar and energy efficiency, low embodied carbon materials, and good insulation. Within this affordable home series, Flexi-living Prefab has gone on to achieve around 70 per cent whole-of-life carbon reductions against the benchmark through the use of factory assembled panel construction.
It’s just one example the report highlights of a scalable blueprint for more affordable, low-carbon living.
If there’s one thing we’d like government to take away from this report, it’s that these emissions reductions can be – and are being – delivered at scale right across the country, and the benefits are being realised by all Australians, including first home buyers and people on low incomes.
Carbon modelling can help architects and clients to focus on areas which will help provide the largest reductions, without increasing costs above expected standard construction costs.
Rooftop solar reduces reliance on fossil fuel-based grid power. Energy efficient appliances use less electricity. A well-sealed and insulated home prevents unwanted heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer. And trees and natural landscaping can cool homes, reducing the need for air conditioning.
These are all savings experienced by people living in these homes, whether they own or rent, and whether or not they were involved in the design of the home.
The architectural profession can also do more to communicate that these emissions reductions are not just being achieved in large, well-funded, innovative single homes – they’re in the suburbs around us.
Canberra’s North Wright Sustainable Precinct, Studio Bright’s Specialist Disability Accommodation project designed for residents with sensory needs, and the Anne Street Garden Villas social housing project on the Gold Coast are all fantastic examples.
Where to from here?
We’ve outlined the evidence, but clearly, we need to see these good design principles implemented at scale, right across the country – otherwise they’ll just remain good case studies in a report.
This needs policy change, from all levels of government.
Luckily, the Architecture Industry Decarbonisation Plan 2025-2050 outlines the way forward. In it, we call for key actions to decarbonise our built environment – from updates to our building codes to procurement reform, to investing in transforming skills, practices and supply chains.
Our hope is that this report provides compelling evidence for government to procure, invest and build using proven techniques that reduce emissions – and to realise that this goes hand in hand with our much-needed push to increase housing supply.
