Why are our homes so important?
Our home is our castle right?
On average, Australian families spend 90% of their time indoors, with two thirds of this at home. So it’s not surprising to hear that 53% of Australia’s total built environment emissions come from our homes.
Our home, both the location and the home itself, influence almost every aspect of our lives.
With our home being one of the most important purchases we will ever make, it’s important that it’s a good financial investment, and also a comfortable and healthy home too. What’s more, not only do our homes need to be comfortable and work for us today, they also need to be flexible, and respond to the needs of tomorrow.
With this in mind, most Australians use the regulatory environment to ensure they have access to quality housing that is affordable and can respond to a changing world. But regulation alone is not delivering these outcomes fast enough, we must do better.
Our vision for better homes, today and tomorrow
At the Green Building Council of Australia, our vision is to create healthy, resilient and positive places for people. Our buildings have an enormous impact on our health and wellbeing, and our planet. We believe that everyone should have access to healthy buildings that are also good for our environment.
This includes all buildings: where we work, learn, shop, socialise, and importantly, the buildings where we live.
It’s possible to create a well-insulated, energy efficient home that is also healthy and comfortable for the occupants. As we’ve seen, it is critical to account for forecast climate change for those first owners, and those that follow.
Efficient homes powered by renewables also bring an additional benefit, they are designed to emit zero emissions during operations. Importantly, we believe that a home that delivers these outcomes should be affordable and save money.
So what is our vision for a better home?
In delivering our vision for the future, we know there are three critical elements that define what a better home looks like, responding our needs of today as well as tomorrow. A better home must be:
With that in mind, the Green Building Council of Australia has created Green Star Homes.
How we are achieving our vision for better homes
Creating a market for healthy, resilient, and positive homes is our key priority. We want to help create a future for healthy, resilient, and net zero energy homes by working with government, industry and homeowners.
With the key stakeholders in realising this vision being, future homeowners, volume home builders and developers, but also banks and insurers. As well as government, product manufacturers and sustainability professionals.
To achieve our vision we are already working to:
- Working with all levels of governments to lift the minimum standards in building, construction and planning codes. Read Every Building Counts here.
- Educate homeowners, industry and decision makers on the importance of more sustainable homes for today and tomorrow.
- Promote builder adoption of Green Star Homes – the common standard for healthy, resilient and positive homes. Find out more here.
- Deliver a set of guidelines for existing homes, to improve their comfort and efficiency. Find out more here, with our guide to Sustainable Home Renovations.
- Work with the finance industry to incentive the adoption of better homes, with better value home loans. Find out more here.
- Educate on the importance of cooking with induction, a key element to electrify our homes and workspaces.
- Embed our vision for homes, through our vision for precincts, with Green Star Communities. Find out more here.
Our partners, supporting our vision for better homes
Future Homes Gold partner
Future Homes Silver partner
Future Homes Supporting partners
