By Tony Trobe
This week Tony Trobe asks Canberra couple Alex Held and Marcela Rosselli about their sustainable home building project.
TT: You're planning to build a new house. What are the things you're looking for in your design?
A /M : We have been looking at building a high energy-efficient, 8+ star-house in the ACT, with appropriate window glazing, insulation and wall membranes, to ensure minimal heat leakage in winter and over-heating in the summer.
TT: You obviously value sustainability, what is your rationale?
A /M: Fundamentally, we consider that everyone, in a small way can contribute to reducing the speed at which our environment and climate degrade, and are happy to help the ACT government achieve its energy efficiency goals. In addition, as energy prices continue to rise across the country, and almost double every 10 years or so, such a home will help reduce our own monthly power, water and gas bills, as well as provide potential benefits in terms of personal comfort, sound insulation and increased bushfire safety.
TT: Do you think the community shares these values?
A /M: In the ACT in particular, we think that more and more people are starting to share these values, but we believe we have a way to go, relative to other countries, where the environmental footprints and energy consumption of the average home are much lower.
TT: Is this added quality associated with good sustainable design reflected in the valuation of the house?
Alex: Sadly, our experiences so far have shown us that sustainable features are not necessarily taken into account in the valuation process of well-designed homes with modern sustainability construction materials. The main factors in valuations seem to be mostly associated with location, standard features and home size, and even the average value of surrounding homes.
TT: Do you think the lending institutions take this sufficiently into account?
A /M: We have not yet found a lending institution willing to take this into account and, in particular, willing to provide unique incentives for sustainable home building projects, such as lower interest rates. This seems to be an established practice elsewhere in the world, where governments and lending institutions come together to provide, for instance, reductions in taxes and interest rates, respectively for sustainable home projects, electric cars and other energy-efficient features. This has not yet become wide practice in Australia.
TT: How can we encourage banks to be more responsive to environmental issues?
A /M: Increased corporate environmental and social responsibility is a growing trend in sharemarkets, large companies and banks in Australia and around the world. Ultimately, however, lending institutions and their shareholders need to see a commercial benefit in promoting more sustainable home building. Here is where both more discerning consumers andgovernments can help. We are not economists, but we are sure that sustainability policies by progressive governments, such as the ACT, would be easier to implement, when they are able to provide incentives to the private sector and, in particular the financial lending sector, such as for instance via reduced corporate taxes.
Tony Trobe is a Canberra-based architect. Visit www.ttarchitecture.com.au or @Tony Trobe.