Standard aims for efficient houses with no bills powered by renewables

The new Green Star Standard initiative looks to ensure new homes are built to a higher environmental standard.

Previously, the Green building Council of Australia had offered a voluntary Green Building Certification Program.

The decision by the Green Building Council to launch its new emission standard for residential home building against the background of mother nature’s turbulent start to the year could not have been better, says chief executive Davina Rooney.

Australia started the year in a state of bushfire emergency, with the following five months impacted by floods, drought and a global health pandemic. The new Green Star Standard initiative looks to ensure new homes are built to a higher environmental standard, focused on health, resilience and a net zero energy target.

“If we don't think the timing now, when we are spending more time in our homes than usual after emerging from a bushfire crisis is not the time to reflect, I don't know when that time will be,” Ms Rooney said. “We think that it's absolutely the right time to look at a standard for more comfortable, resilient homes for all Australians that are net zero (carbon emitting). That is, efficient houses with no bills powered by renewables.”

CEO of the Green Building Council of Australia, Davina Rooney. Picture: Ryan Osland/The Australian

The Council hopes the social impact of the crisis – which saw parent’s running the kids to school in masks to mitigate bushfire smoke pollution and others forced to flee their homes for to safety – will make the everyday punter building a property more aware of their own impacts.

“The sustainability movement hasn’t always had a focus on mum and dads,” said Ms Rooney.

“From the bushfires, our vulnerability to climate crises has never been more clear. I love the idea that out the back of that fire season, like a phoenix rises from the ashes, there's an opportunity to take best practice forward and say I want better for my family, my community and my planet.”

The new standard would focus on renewables to create residential properties that are “comfortable and resilient to future climate change”. Ms Rooney said it is particularly important homes are a target as part of climate strategy as it is where a majority of Australian’s carbon emissions originate.

“If we are serious about limiting global warming to below 1.5 degrees, as committed to in the Paris Agreement, we can’t ignore our homes,” she said.

Several developers, including Stockland, Metricon, Rawson Homes and Chatham Homes have signed on to the standard, alongside state government body Development Victoria. Building at scale is important in the early stages of this kind of “ambitious” program, Ms Rooney said, welcoming the large residential developers that have signed on.

Previously, the Green building Council of Australia had offered a voluntary Green Building Certification Program.