Knowledge of low carbon best practice for a home and building’s lifecycle – construction, retrofit and operation – is now available via the CRC for Low Carbon Living’s (CRCLCL) Low Carbon Guides, to help make informed decisions about their home, commercial property or development project – from understanding an electricity bill to creating a sustainable precinct.
The guide series is housed on the CRCLCL’s research legacy portal BuiltBetter.org which also includes all reports, conference papers, journal articles and fact sheets produced over its seven year lifespan.
The Low Carbon Guides are comprised of the:
·Guide to Low Carbon Households – providing advice to homeowners and renters on operating households using low carbon living approaches.
·Guide to Low Carbon Residential Buildings – New Build – providing new build options for homeowners, builders and designers during the planning and construction of new homes.
·Guide to Low Carbon Residential Buildings – Retrofit – providing retrofit solutions for existing homes, tailored for homeowners and their contractors.
·Guide to Low Carbon Precincts – providing frameworks and options to assist councils and developers with strategic planning decisions when implementing low-carbon neighbourhoods.
·Guide to Low Carbon Commercial Buildings – New Build – providing design and construction of low carbon commercial buildings information.
·Guide to Low Carbon Commercial Buildings – Retrofit – Methods for retrofitting commercial buildings to improve performance while reducing energy and carbon use.
·Guides to cover Landscape, Urban Cooling, Value-chain and other topics will follow.
The CRCLCL’s CEO, Professor Deo Prasad says “These guides draw on the significant body of research the CRCLCL has funded over the past seven years, now encompassed in these practical tools to help reduce and manage the built environment’s carbon footprint,” he says.
“As buildings are responsible for 30-40 percent of prime energy used, these guides will help to future proof our cities by helping people make informed decisions when building or renovating."
“Importantly, buildings are responsible for a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions in Australia, so the built environment sector must take action to mitigate emissions if we’re to meet current targets of net zero emissions by 2050 and a 26–28 percent reduction in emissions relative to 2005 levels by 2030,” says Prasad.
Of the six key guides listed, four are currently available with the last two to follow in the coming weeks.
These will be published on the BuiltBetter platform when available.
