France is turning off gas boilers, and the EU to follow
On the eve of the big HVAC & R event in Melbourne, which kicked off on Tuesday, France has jumped to the front with the mandate that boilers be banned in new builds.
The French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the ban would include commercial and multi-unit housing, “by year’s end,” in order to curb the country’s dependence on fossil fuels. New houses have already been captured with the ban.
Lecornu said his government aimed to install a million French-made heat pumps every year by 2030, which would halve the cost of heating. It wants to shift energy consumption from 60 per cent oil and gas to 60 per cent decarbonised energy by 2030.
According to Le Monde, the French government also doubled support for electrification initiatives from €5.5 billion ($A8.97 billion) to €10 billion ($A16.31 billion) every year, which is reallocated from reduced energy spending and reallocation of public and private aid.
The ban is aligned with the European Union’s 2024 Revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD).
Lecornu added that 2 million social housing units will be taken off gas by 2050 and the government will subsidise 50,000 more electric vehicles at reduced cost leases for high mileage drivers and front-line workers such as health aides, nurses and tradespeople who rely on their car for work.
Built and Wesfarmers’ new venture
Built has embarked on a 50:50 joint venture with West Australian based conglomerate Wesfarmers, with Built Living, an off-site manufacturing business with the promise to deliver apartments faster, at a lower cost and at an industrial scale.
Built has also appointed Dale Connor as the new venture’s chief executive. Connor was formerly the chief operating officer and chief executive for construction at Lendlease.
The new business aims to accelerate housing delivery using advanced manufacturing and design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) of high quality modular and precast apartment components.
The new business is based on two years of global research into scalable solutions for Australia’s housing crisis. It says DfMA is a mature approach proven in the Netherlands, Germany and Finland, with 20 per cent lower costs and 50 per cent faster delivery than traditional methods.
We’re out of space to play sports
The Committee for Sydney has launched a new report finding that Sydney will likely run out of sporting facilities if systems around sport don’t act and take advantage of the incoming investment from the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Despite the increasing demand for sports, housing growth and rezoning are intensifying the competition for land, and sports facilities rarely win the competition unless they were planned from the start. Community facilities are also in a losing battle against extreme weather, with washed-out fields and dangerously hot days decreasing participation.
Meanwhile, physical activities are falling amongst young people, especially girls. And the challenge that’s held the system back is a cultural fixation on elite pathways rather than broad participation, fragmented policy and investment and a system that is being asked to do more with less, the report said.
Tree bark could clean water and air
New RMIT studies found that Eucalyptus bark, which has been stripped from logs and treated as low-value waste from logging operations, could be turned into filter products that clean polluted water, filter dirty air and capture carbon dioxide.
Not only that, but the material could also perform these functions through a one-step activation process rather than the complicated, multi-stage, energy-intensive processes that need infrastructure like other filters. Researchers are hoping to engage with indigenous people and organisations to work out which of the 900 species of Eucalyptus would be best suited for future products.
Jobs
Former lord mayor Sally Capp didn’t stop with her new appointment with Hickory, with Victorian home builder Mirrastone appointing her as an advisor and ambassador. The builders said Capp will work with its brands, Sherridon Homes, SOHO Living, Royston, Hattan, SOHO Built and Brilley, to strengthen its engagement with the government.
Capp said she joined what she said is the state’s biggest builders because it had the potential to increase housing supply and was willing to engage government and industry in purposeful ways.