As New Zealand heads into winter, Fletcher Living is calling on the New Zealand Building Industry to join them in addressing the urgent need to make our housing stock more energy efficient.
Fletcher Living recently completed their first low carbon homes (LowCO), which includes a 3-bedroom stand-alone home plus a three-unit terrace block, at Waiata Shores, Auckland. The four homes will be a temperate 20-21 degrees Celsius year-round due to the homes unique thermal envelope.
“LowCO has been designed and built to use 7x less carbon than the average New Zealand home over its lifetime. In attaining that, we have also created an extremely energy efficient home. LowCO will use half the electricity of a standard built home creating less dependency on the national grid,” says Steve Evans, Chief Executive of Fletcher Building's Residential and Development Division.
“As New Zealand looks to different energy sources, we know the LowCO system could be beneficial to others, so Fletcher Living has chosen to share the architectural plans to make it easier for others wanting to build a more sustainable and energy efficient home,” says Steve.
LowCO’s architectural plans and product list is now available on the Fletcher Living website LowCO - Low Carbon Sustainable Homes » Fletcher Living.
“Change takes a conscious effort,” says Steve. “Over the past three years, Fletcher Living has done the hard yards to develop a blueprint for future sustainable and energy efficient housing. To make a real difference for New Zealand scale is needed, which is why we have made the LowCO plans freely available,” says Steve.
By using Fletcher Building Group’s expertise in building materials and construction, others looking for more climate friendly home design don’t have to start from a blank slate. LowCO has achieved the following:
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Homestar 10 (V5) – New Zealand Green Building Council’s highest built rating.
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7x less Carbon emitted than a standard home over its lifetime.
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20-21 degrees Celsius year-round indoor temperature.
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50% reduction in the energy and water usage of a standard built home.
Head of Sustainability for Fletcher Living, Nicola Tagiston explains, “Alongside the plans there is a list of all the products used through the home. Products were assessed under the life cycle assessment tool, LCAQuick, to help us evaluate the carbon footprint and make sustainable design decisions.”
“LowCO proves it is possible to deliver architecturally designed low carbon houses, where those who call them home can anticipate healthier living with reduced expenses. The industry needs to be open to doing things differently – we hope our plans for the future will inspire others,” says Nicola.