permaculture

[Russ Grayson <pacedge@magna.com.au>]

After years of trying to educate homebuilders about resource efficient homes, the NSW government  yesterday announced that from next year all new homes will have to be energy and water efficient. New regulations are to be introduced that will make such homes mandatory from 1 July. Unfortunately, the move could push up the price of new homes in a booming, overpriced market that has seen many first home buyers unable to buy a home in the Sydney region.

The government says that new homes will have to meet a 40 per cent reduction in water use, 25 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas equivalent and 40 per cent reduction in energy consumption that at present. NSW premier, Bob Carr, puts water savings at around 182 billion litres over the ten years after the regulations come into force. Houses will install water-efficient showerheads, dual-flush toilets and building design will make use of solar heating and natural light.

Energy efficient domestic design is already mandatory in local government areas in which councils have voluntarily adopted the NSW Sustainable Energy Development Authority's Energy Smart Homes Scheme. Those council regulations will be replaced next year by a points rating system, the Building Sustainability Index, that will apply in all council areas. The Index will be applied only to new dwellings, including medium density, but not to renovations. 

Reaction in the metropolitan press has been mixed. The story broke in time for the Thursday evening news but was reported without reaction or comment. The Friday morning metropolitan press carried reaction. Quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, the state's major metropolitan daily, the Urban Development Institute's executive director, Patricia Gilchrist, said up to 95 per cent of existing housing stock will remain unaffected. Similar sentiments were echoed by Greens MP, Ian Cohen, who said that renovators and existing home owners would have no incentive to be energy efficient. Taking a more supportive stand, Total Environment Centre director, Jeff Angel, said the move would reduce Sydney's environmental footprint (a measure of the land area equivalent needed to produce the resources consumed in the city).

Encouraging the move will be the extension of the existing rebate on roofwater tanks, however the existing rebate on the installation of solar hot water systems will end because of budget reductions. A Property Council of Australia spokesman was quoted as saying that changes to the development process could offsetting some of the costs associated with the impending regulation. A Meriton spokesperson - the company is a major new home and apartment developer - said the regulations would boost the cost of medium density development but that buyers are demanding environmentally-friendly homes and the regulations will add to market appeal.

The Housing Industry Association estimates that the regulations will add about $10,000 to the cost of a new home. Home owners can anticipate savings of around $500 a year in energy and water costs but this would take up to 20 years for homeowners to recoup the extra cost of resource efficient housing.

SOUND MOVE FOR WATER-SCARCE FUTURE
An incentive to the new regulations may be Sydney's anticipated dry summer. Water restrictions come into force on 1 October - the use of irrigation systems and sprinklers is banned and only hand-held hosing of gardens will be permitted in the evening. Cars will have to be washed from a bucket of water, not a hose. With bushland drying out, another high-risk bushfire season is anticipated. Bushfires are already burning in the state's Northern Rivers district. 

The new housing regulations will have no effect on this summer's situation but could conserve water resources in future dry seasons. According to scientists, we can expect more of these and a continuation of the drought that has reduced crop yields and dried out farmland over the past few years.

Scientists blame changed weather patterns for the drought. They say that the intensification of the high altitude winds that circle the Antarctic ice cap has moved southwards the westerlies that bring rain to southern Australia. Only a relatively small movement is needed to deprive the continent's south of normal rainfall. Global waring and the hole in the Antarctic ozone layer may be contributing to the intensification of the high altitude vortex. The condition may persist for decades.

CHALLENGE OF GLOBAL PROPORTIONS
The changed weather patterns and associated drought present Australia with a challenge - either develop new dryland farming methods or see the rural sector sink into decline and exports fall. Export is critical to Australian farmers, with up to two-thirds of Australia's rural productivity, including that of organic faming, exported. There is little slack in the national market for home-grown produce - there are limits to the amount of rural produce a population of 20 million can absorb. 

A shortfall in the quantity available for export would place farmers in jeopardy. While some farmers have been developing a more enlightened approach to farming, the question remains whether the majority have the attitude and capacity to change their ways to accommodate the changing climate.

The production of greenhouse gases is another challenge facing Australia. Per head of population, the country's industries and households are a major source of such gases. Critics point out that the Howard federal government has been tardy in addressing the greenhouse issue domestically and internationally with its failure to sign the Kyoto Protocol.

With its proposed housing regulations, NSW's Carr government has taken the lead in addressing the housing industry's contribution to water usage and the emission of greenhouse gases. Sure, the proposed regulations will need debugging and amending to make them more effective and socially equitable, but they are a start.

If the scientists are right about changing weather patterns and drought - and there is no reason to believe they are not - and if the greenhouse issue is part of that complex process, then ideology-driven governments such as that in Canberra are as obsolete as their political theories. Carr's proposal for water and energy efficient housing will be one small step on a long reform process, but it is better than sitting around and doing nothing.

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Russ Grayson
Media services:  journalism-print/ online/ photo
TerraCircle development aid team, Oceania
pacedge@magna.com.au  Phone/ fax: 02 9588 6931
PO Box 446 Kogarah NSW 2217 Australia
http://www.magna.com.au/~pacedge/
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