Residential property is increasingly in the spotlight as an opportunity to retrofit existing homes and save carbon and energy bills.
The Green Building Council of Australia on Monday launched the Sustainable Home Renovations Guide.
The publication provides extensive guidance to builders, designers, and homeowners on how to make their properties more efficient, healthy, and resilient through sustainable home renovations.
The guide comes with Green Spec, a complimentary web tool that can help owners make informed decisions through access to digital floorplan samples and ideas for technical modifications.
Making your home sustainable through renovations
Produced in collaboration with insurers Allianz Australia, the renovation guide claims to help Australians navigate sustainable home renovations, which will reduce emissions and help consumers and builders meet Green Star Homes standards in energy efficiency, health, and resilience.
GBCA chief executive officer Davina Rooney said the guide was a game-changer for the average Aussie, who spends 90 per cent of their time indoors and two-thirds of this time inside the home. This meant that an estimated 53 per cent of Australia’s total built environment emissions are from households.
“In 2021, Australians spent over $11 billion in home renovations, but up until now, there hasn’t been an easy way for homeowners and builders to navigate resilient and sustainable options for these renovations,” Ms Rooney said.
“Whether you’re considering small updates such as replacing your taps or lighting, or you’re planning a significant home renovation, our guide will help you make choices that may improve a home’s efficiency, create a healthier living environment, and increase its resilience to climate changes.
“As we face another hot summer, it’s never been more important for us to think about the resilience of our homes and the modifications we make to them.”
The Green Specs website includes floor plan samples and renovation ideas to inspire homeowners to make the leap.
Sema Whittle, the general manager of sustainability at Allianz, said that the increasing frequency and severity of weather events meant that it is increasingly important to consider sustainable and resilient elements in the house.
“The insurance industry is important in supporting our customers and the community to transition to net zero. In bringing Green Specs to life, we aim to highlight ways to make homes more sustainable – from small improvements to large renovations.”
A similar tool that helps households identify bushfire risks and increase resilience was also launched this week.
Each announcement follows the Committee for Sydney report, which identified that insurers are withdrawing from the market. The report calls for increased government investment in protecting households against extreme weather.
Great that existing homes are getting the attention they need, but why oh why did we not DEMAND that the upgrade to National Construction Code MANDATE net zero last September when it was being updated. This means that we continue to add to the stock of new buildings that immediately need retrofit to get to net zero – we forgot to turn off the hose before mending the leaks! Retrofit is more expensive than installing the neccessary solar from new. Had we mandated net zero, we would have decarbonised housing 4 times faster than 7* (delivering half of the emissions reduction needed by 2050 from housing in one fell swoop), ensured that every new house had solar from new, AND the houses would have been more affordable from day 1, because the energy cost savings are up to eight times greater than the additional mortgage costs for the net zero measures. The Luddite housing industry resisting Net Zero shot themselves in the foot, missing the chance for selling higher value properties, with opportunities for significant value-add – oversized solar, batteries, electric vehicle charging…etc. And where were GBCA in all of this? – playing nice with the Housing Industry rather than standing up for what was needed!