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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Tuesday, 24 August 2004) . . Page.. 4063 ..

You have to have an emerging aesthetic of sustainability, supported by the leaders in the community, but it must be about best practice and high-quality design. There is then a real chance that people will accept it, and I believe they will. The ACT Greens’ action plan for the built environment is built on those understandings. The government’s new guidelines on high-quality sustainable design encourage—and I underline encourage—energy and water conservation measures and the use of more suitable building materials.

These are steps in the right direction but the government has not gone far enough in helping a sustainable Canberra future take shape. Indeed, it has not gone much further than its previous position, which was reflected in the HQSD process. To truly commit to a more sustainable built environment the government must prescribe mandatory improved minimum standards for design and construction in the ACT. A new approach to urban planning is needed—one based on ecological and social sustainability.

Canberra’s planning and design regime should provide adequate guidance to residents and developers to assist them to reduce their impacts on the environment. It should also assist residents and developers to reduce their energy and water costs through building and land use design to suit the capital city’s climate and landscape. There should be clear sustainability standards and targets, as have already been established in Victoria, New South Wales and other parts of Australia.

From July 2004, for example, builders in Victoria have had three options—five-star energy rating or four-star energy rating plus water-saving measures, plus rainwater tank; or four-star energy rating plus water-saving measures plus solar hot water, with requirements set to become more stringent over time. In New South Wales the government has introduced the Building Sustainability Index, or BASIX, to ensure that new homes use less water and energy. All residential development applications must now include a BASIX certificate.

The BASIX certificate demonstrates that the design meets the government’s targets for reducing water and energy use. Applicants must show that their proposed homes will be designed and built to use 40 per cent less mains supply water and produce 25 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than the current New South Wales average. From 1 July 2006 this will rise to 40 per cent less than the average greenhouse gas emissions.

New homes must also meet BASIX requirements relating to the thermal performance of the building envelope. This requirement is aimed at ensuring that homes are not overly reliant on artificial heating and cooling, such as air-conditioning, in order to be more comfortable. The implementation of the prescribed targets in New South Wales will result in a cumulative reduction in water consumption of 182,000 megalitres and a cumulative reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 7.2 million tonnes over the next 10 years. These reductions will save consumers across New South Wales $182 million for water and $36 million for energy.

An average New South Wales family living in a home certified by BASIX is likely to save between $300 and $500 a year on combined water and energy, compared with an electric household. In Canberra, the nation’s capital—a city designed by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin to be a city in the landscape—it is vital that the government commit to a vision that champions a light ecological footprint, respect for

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