BUILDING HEALTHY HOMES

Building SUSTAINABLE AND WORKPLACES

homes

Building sustainably is about using practices and systems that lessen impact on the environment, lower running costs and make homes healthy, accessible and comfortable.

Sustainability includes environmental, social and economic factors. A sustainable building is supposed to meet social and also cultural needs, to ensure resources are equally available, and to cause no irreversible damage to the environment during its entire life cycle.

It includes energy e ciency, the move to a net zero-carbon economy and building resilience against hazards such as earthquakes, storms and fl ooding.

For di erent countries, people and industries, the move to sustainable and ethical practices is far reaching. Most people agree it involves practices that help to maintain the qualities valued in our physical environment, living within the means of natural systems (environment), and ensuring that our lifestyle doesn’t harm other people.

The ‘tiny home’ movement is on the rise, supporting smaller residential dwellings, especially eco-friendly options. Permanent and mobile tiny homes come in a huge range of designs (just like their larger counterparts), and are often customised, but not always eco or sustainably built.

One company producing super energy e cient tiny homes is Ecospace, which uses Irving Builders locally. Its sustainable approach is refl ected in the materials, such as structural insulated panels (SIPs), that its builders use, each one selected for its high quality and low carbon footprint, says company’s managing director Gavin Barr. “We’re saving our clients’ money in the long term, and saving the planet every day.”

PROUDLY BUILDING & RENOVATING MODERN & LUXURY HOMES

We have been involved in SIPs construction and prefabrication for the last 6 years ranging from the most complicated to simple designs, this has led to our relationship with Eco Space and the tiny homes. High performance construction is about managing the process, heat goes where air flows so understanding the requirements of what is expected both from a clients and performance perspective is critical, which is why we always recommend being involved with engineers at the very start of the design process.

GO GREEN AND ECO FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Understanding climate change, carbon footprints, and what changes are needed to live sustainably is the fi rst step for many people towards making signifi cant change.

The average New Zealand carbon footprint can be simplifi ed into four major categories: Food, transport, housing and household energy use, and shopping.

If New Zealand’s overall household consumption emissions are averaged out, then per household, more than a third of emissions are from transport, about a quarter are from food, and one quarter are from shopping and recreation.

Around one eighth are attributed to housing and household energy use.

Overall household consumption emissions in 2019 were 42.89 million tonnes of CO2-e (carbon dioxide equivalent emissions), equating to about 8.5 tonnes per capita.

A signifi cant way to reduce emissions is to create sustainable buildings, especially ‘green’ buildings, designed to be good for people, and to have a lower impact on the environment, thereby delivering benefi ts to their occupants, and the wider community.

The global movement to promote green building arose from a recognition of these benefi ts, and also the realisation that common industry practice often wasn’t delivering buildings that were as healthy and e cient as they should be.

GOING GREEN

The New Zealand Green Building Council is part of an international network, with more than 70 such councils worldwide.

A ‘green’ building is one that is designed, built and operated in ways that reduce or remove any negative impact on the environment and the people using it.

Green buildings make more e cient use of resources such as energy and water, and provide healthier environments for people to live and work in. Green building practices can also help to reduce construction and operation costs.

Helping to lead the way to building sustainability in New Zealand is BRANZ, a multi-faceted, science-led organisation that uses independent research, systems knowledge, and a broad network, to identify practical solutions for improving this country’s building system performance.

Working with industry, government groups, and building users, its research focuses on how it will make a di erence to people throughout the building system, aimed at understanding how buildings work, and what needs to improve to achieve long-term benefi ts.

The BRANZ Level website is a primary source of information for designing and building sustainably. It also provides tools and resources for life cycle assessment, carbon footprinting, thermal e ciency, universal design, reducing building and construction waste and the costs and benefi ts of building sustainably.

WEBSITES TO VISIT

www.branzfi nd.co.nz. www.genless.govt.nz

home & living The majority of New Zealand homes, and sometimes even new homes just aren’t healthy enough, often uninhabitable by world standards - too cold, damp, and mouldy. SUPERMAKING HOME

The majority of New Zealand homes, and sometimes even new homes just aren’t healthy enough, often uninhabitable by world standards - too cold, damp, and mouldy.

Astudy by research organisation BRANZ and the University of Auckland, found that 1000 children slept in bedrooms that were below 18 deg C. Even those who do stay warm, end up paying unwarrantedly high power bills, says Bob Burnett of New Zealand’s Superhome Movement.

He believes that unnecessary bureaucracy has allowed the current New Zealand building code to slip behind standards found in the rest of the developed world.

“Our conservative and inept code is over-complicated, stating the ‘why’ but seldom the ‘how’,” he explains.

“The work to improve [building standards] has already been done overseas, with extensive research and development solutions that are easily implemented already in-practise.

“It’s time for change. “The industry needs to be more aware of these proven solutions that work, and teach the simple steps of how to implement them to ensure healthy and energy-e cient living,” he adds.

KEY PRINCIPLES

DESIGN AND MODELLING - optimised site orientation, function and verifi ed energy performance. WINDOWS AND DOORS - high-performance and installed in-line with insulation.

STRUCTURE AND FOUNDATIONS - fullyinsulated with minimal thermal bridging. AIRTIGHTNESS - appropriate techniques and standards. VENTILATION - appropriate whole home heat recovery systems.

THE SUSTAINABLE INSULATION CHOICE

By keeping your existing walls intact, Insulmax saves disposing perfectly good building materials into our landfills. ORANGE IS THE NEW GREEN

THINK PLAN DO

Proud to work with Bob Burnett Architecture

0800 999 333 hello@do.nz www.do.nz Christchurch / Timaru / Greymouth / Nelson

Eco-friendly

Made from inert materials and composed of 84% post-consumer waste Insulation is one of the best ways to make your home energy efficient, reducing your electricity and heating fuel consumption CFC and HCFC free and classified as zero Ozone Depletion Potential and zero Global Warming Potential