Coconut trees fall onto the beach as rising sea levels erode their bases on Tuvalu
It’s encouraging to hear Green Building Council Chief Executive Jane Henley noting that a Code will soon be available for residential buildings, to augment work currently been done for commercial properties.Visitors from overseas are horrified with how poorly insulated New Zealand houses are. For a cold country with a lot of wind and rain, the draftiness we have historically tolerated is shocking. Victoria University’s Prof Robert Vale warns “the average New Zealand house is scarily cold, badly insulated, has huge expanses of single-glazed glass, and is a nightmare to heat. In terms of energy efficient homes we are not very far along. It’s pretty much where the Scandinavians were in the 1960s.”
Insulation only became compulsory in construction in 1978 and it is estimated there are almost a million houses that pre-date that, about two thirds of our total housing stock. “Those 900,000 houses might have some insulation, but it’s inadequate.” says Chris Ellis, building products chief executive at Fletcher Building.
European cultures are built on stone. Pacific cultures (including Japan) are built on wood. This was most graphically illustrated to me when a friend and his wife immigrated to New Zealand from Britain. On first sight of Aotearoa, his wife wept. All she saw were wooden houses, a material associated with cheap, temporary structures only back in the United Kingdom. As a construction material, stone (or modern versions such as brick or concrete) is enduring, strong, and provides natural insulation. On the other hand, wood is renewable, flexible (handy in a region prone to earthquakes), easily worked, and a warmer, living material.
Unfortunately in New Zealand’s case, our houses are often just too living. Movement in fittings over time enhances the drafty gaps. The clever Japanese worked out millennia ago that sliding, rather than swinging, wooden doors and windows eliminate these gaps, and are also more space efficient. An elegantly simple solution. Never mind, looks like New Zealand is finally doing something about our problem.
The New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development prepared a 5 point plan on what needs to be done to fix our drafty houses:
- Establish a shared vision and plan
- Market research to connect consumers with integrated solutions that deliver better home performance
- A home performance rating system
- Better alignment of the building industry
- Shift from red to green tape
It is pleasing therefore to see the 2009 Government budget introducing schemes to encourage insulation of older properties, and other interested commercial parties likely to join the effort. The target is proper insulation of 60,500 of those older homes per year between 2009 and 2013. Prime Minister John Key thinks the scheme could create about 2000 jobs. And credit to the Green Party for their role in this development.
A ShapeNZ survey for the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development found that 26 per cent of respondents would consider taking out a home insulation loan from their electricity provider, 22 per cent would consider taking a mortgage top-up from a bank and 21 per cent would consider taking up a loan from their council to be paid back through their rates. Underfloor insulation alone is estimated to result in 10% energy savings. Let’s hope we will soon say goodbye to those breezy lounges, kitchens, and bedrooms for which New Zealand homes have become infamous.
The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority has started to identify leaders and best practice in energy efficient homes. It has so far rated about 1000 homes on its 10 point scale. A holiday home in Golden Bay recently received the highest score yet, of 9. The Authority believes the home uses 85% less energy than the average new home and notes the use of the following features in particular:
- Large double-glazed windows orientated towards the sun.
- Smart use of building material – concrete floor and adobe walls collect the sun’s warmth on sunny days and release it overnight.
- Super insulated roof, walls and floor (more than double that required by the Building Code).
- Solar water heating.
Owner Lawrence McIntyre said “The difference between insulating a house the way I have and the way another house is, is probably only $3000 to $4000 and the insulation value is more than double. People are quite happy to put flash stereos in their cars or spend $20,000 to $30,000 on a kitchen but they’ll scrimp on 20ml of insulation. (If) you take one ensuite out you can build the flashest solar hot water system that you can buy.” He notes that the trick is not fancy technology but simply insuring there are no gaps. Also keeping size modest helps. Small is beautiful. McIntrye hopes people will visit the house for inspiration.
Then there are other visionary efforts to improve our future dwellings. “The Sustainable Habitat Challenge is a nationwide competition where teams comprising of tertiary staff and students, industry professionals and local government representatives, come together to build a sustainable home. The competition is funded by the Ministry for the Environment’s Sustainable Management Fund and aims to foster communications, collaboration, and innovation in the area of sustainable design.” We wish them luck, and look forward to application of lessons learnt in mainstream New Zealand dwellings.
In terms of commercial buildings, the Green Building Council’s recently introduced “Green Star” system is another opportunity to improve performance. “Green Star is a comprehensive, national, voluntary, environmental rating scheme that evaluates the environmental attributes and performance of New Zealand’s buildings using a suite of rating tool kits developed to be applicable to each building type and function.” The Council notes the following benefits to businesses participating in the scheme
Positive associations for project and corporate image.
Competitive advantage through differentiation of project in the marketplace.
Greater awareness and education of the environmental initiatives amongst staff, clients and other stakeholders
New Zealand’s Green Building Council has been quick to catch the global trend. In the US, a recent analysis by real estate researcher CoStar Group, found that green-certified buildings had fewer vacancies than other buildings with similar age, size and location. “This isn’t just a ‘We are doing the right thing’ movement,” said Marc Heisterkamp, US Green Building Council’s director of commercial real estate. “In the end, the numbers pencil out.” Of course ecology and economy are directly related. Economics largely applies the laws of ecology to human society. What’s good for one will, in the long term, be good for the other.
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