Sustainable Performance Indicators for Australian Residential Buildings

Abstract

Sustainable construction is the set of processes by which a profitable and competitive industry delivers built assets, which enhance the quality of life, offer customer satisfaction, and maximize the efficient use of resources. In Australia, construction-related legislations such as the Waste Minimisation and Management Act and the newly implemented Carbon Tax Scheme in the Climate Change Framework have been launched, and voluntary schemes, such as promoting waste minimization principles, providing waste reduction grants programs, providing waste reduction and purchasing policies, and assessing the existing sustainable assessment tools are available. The industry realizes the importance of sustainable construction, but organizations do not have enough experience and knowledge to perform well on sustainability. Until now, inadequate research has been carried out to support the development of sustainable performance for residential buildings with life-cycle thinking and specific local conditions. Based on the literature review, this paper develops a set of sustainability performance indicators to assess local residential buildings’ sustainable performance improvements. Questionnaires and structured interviews are conducted. Survey targets are classified as four main categories, including residents originating from overseas, local residents, industrial professionals, and real estate agents. The results highlight that improving natural daylight to the building is considered as the major indicator to improve sustainable performance. However, use of material with low embodied energy when manufactured and separability of positions are not considered to be significant indicators. Finally, measures on how the indicators can further be developed and how this can be introduced into the economy to improve sustainability in residential building are characterized. The paper highlights that implementing legislations for the enforcement of sustainability construction is one of the most effective approaches for improving sustainability performance in construction.