Reduce your energy usage
In Australia, our homes are responsible for approximately 20% of total greenhouse emissions. This means when you design and build a home that requires less energy to run, you are making a significant contribution.
We’ve touched on orientation above, and this should be combined with passive design principles such as insulation, window design, shading and ventilation where possible, to maintain comfortable temperatures inside, year-round. Designing a house that is the right size, is also key, as (in general) the bigger the home, the more energy it will take to run.