Healthy homes: Countries and cities around the world are taking action to encourage a more sustainable built environment. Approaches include stronger building codes and standards, as well as tax and other incentives for building developers and owners. The market plays a part when improvements are recognised through increased property value.
The desire to be seen to do the right thing is also a powerful motivator. Voluntary environmental ratings systems and guidelines raise public awareness of sustainable building practices and can lead to more formal changes such as the Auckland Draft Unitary Plan.
In North America, LEED for Homes is a voluntary rating tool for new single and small multi-family homes. It is designed to maximise fresh air indoors and minimise exposure to airborne toxins and pollutants. On average, LEED-certified homes use 20 to 30 per cent less energy than a home built to code.
LEED for Neighbourhoods offers pointers for sustainable design on a larger scale, taking in walkability and density of neighborhoods, ease of access to public transportation, stores, and civic institutions, preservation and improvement of ecologically valuable land, and neighbourhood-wide energy sources.
One of the schemes which has received some publicity is Passiv Haus, developed in Germany in 1996 for new homes. Its goal is reducing the housing sector's carbon emissions to a scientifically-justified level with strict performance-based requirements for air leakage, heating and cooling, and overall energy use.
