Several parties in the NZ high-performance building sector have been working on big meaningful changes to the way we build and all of us agree the winning combination is to change the building code. NZGBC is the biggest player in this sector and it is awesome to see their target. “To ensure zero carbon buildings in Aotearoa, the Government must …
2019 September 23 Scoop: Healthy Homes Initiative Evaluation Positive
This is a significant reduction in trips to the hospital for children. I wish we had an easy way to price this into building standards and made our buildings better at the start. “The Healthy Homes service is anticipated to avert approximately $30 million in health care costs over three years, and the predicted return on investment for funded HHI …
2019 September 20 Stuff: Former Stable Master’s Cottage Rebuilt (and targeting) Certified Passive House

The owner of Mona Vale’s former Stable Master’s Cottage got carried away when he visited Christchurch four years ago – he fell in love with an “as is, where is” house and bought it on a whim. “I bought it in a moment of madness,” he says. “It had moderate damage. It was a double-brick house with no timber framing to …
2019 September 18 Queenstown Lakes District: Design Team Appointed For District’s First Passive House-Standard Community Building
Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) endorsed an ultra-low energy ‘Passive House’ concept for the new hall late last year. Since then, Council officers have been working to turn this aspiration into a detailed project plan for what may well be one of the first community facilities built and certified to Passive House standard anywhere in Aotearoa New Zealand. Richard Pope …
2019 September 9 Building Green: People Want a Greener Future but Don’t Know How to Get There
“Perhaps most disappointing for building professionals were responses about the impact of green building on the environment, people, and communities. “Only 11% of respondents associate words like ‘green building’ and ‘green space’ with creating an environment in which people live longer and healthier lives. This is far below other phrases, which people do associate with the environment—like recycling (45%), water …
29 August 2019 NZ Herald’s Anne Gibson: Why a Henderson mother won $13k from her landlords: 22 separate issues at rental property
“A house with leaking and damaged gutters, rotting window frames, illegal stairs, a sagging and mouldy ceiling, rotting weatherboards, a rotten toilet floor and exposed electrical board have earned a stiff penalty for the landlords who rented it out.” “Landlords Ross and Sally Craigie must pay tenant Bjana Thompson $13,020.44 for breaching the Residential Tenancies Act by failing to maintain …
27 August 2019 The Fifth Estate’s Poppy Johnston: NSW gets its first Certified Passive House homes
Congratulations to Joe Mercieca of Blue Eco Homes for Sapphire Passive House in the Blue Mountains and Andy Marlow of Envirotecture for the Thornleigh house. The article states that “The certification of these two buildings brings the total number of Passive House Certified buildings in Australia to 18. ” with a “a pipeline of hundreds of Passive House buildings in various …
15 August 2019 News Hub’s Mel Logan & Dan Satherley: Damp, mouldy homes blamed for high rate of kids with respiratory infections
1600 extra death per year 20% of serious respiratory infections prevented. Seems like warm dry healthy homes would cheaper than what we do now. Content by News Hub.
12 August 2019: Seriously the mould is a design flaw not the tenant
Humorous comment that matches my maxim of buildings should be durable without requiring crazy intervention from the occupants. I still remember one of mates telling me the reason for mould in one of their rentals is the tenants closed the windows while sleeping – seriously he expected them to open their windows while sleeping all winter long in a neighborhood …