Energy-efficient homes sell for more in Aus

“Australia’s energy-efficient houses are commanding premium prices, with buyers spending 17 per cent more to get into a sustainable home.” That’s the Sydney Morning Herald leading its article with a...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2022

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Top 10 Climate Risks

New Zealand’s first national adaptation plan is out for discussion. I have to say it reads like a plan to have a plan. Now the real work begins: what we...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2022

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A compelling case for component-based housing solutions

Adam Cohen has a bold and creative vision: carbon-negative, decentralised building systems that will take Passive House performance to provincial New Zealand. He outlines it eloquently in this opinion piece...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Fletcher Living’s Low Carbon homes featured

Fletcher Living’s Low Carbon House featured in an excellent article by Nikki Mandow on Newsroom last month. Sustainable Engineering’s been involved from the beginning and it’s been awesome to bring...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2022

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Heavy health cost of NZ’s love affair with cars

It’s not just the climate that pays when fossil fuel is burned to transport people and goods. An update to the HAPINZ study on air pollution has, for the first...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2022

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More options in SEL window specs database

More window manufacturers and suppliers have supplied data to populate Sustainable Engineering’s window specifications database. Passive House designers can now find specs for timber windows manufactured here in New Zealand...

by Toby Brooke

Updated: Mar 2026

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Insulation is not magic

The results of a survey on the state of New Zealand housing are getting plenty of media coverage at the moment, given the grim findings about the scale of the...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Bundle heating costs with rent?

Fuel poverty is no joke. Society is only as strong as its most vulnerable members. If the cost of keeping everyone’s house warm—not an allowance measured in dollars but by...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2022

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Fletcher Living gets serious about low carbon homes

Great to see Fletcher Living’s announcement about its Low Carbon initiative. The Sustainable Engineering team has really enjoyed working with Fletcher Living’s people on their vision for low carbon homes...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2022

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Historical insulation levels in NZ

Against the backdrop of all the recent noise about increasing Building Code minimum R-values, let’s look back at how the minimum standard (or typical values) have changed over time. This...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Optimal indoor CO2 levels: is 1000ppm too high?

We need to talk about ventilation. Urgently. Specifically, policy-makers and industry need to arrive at an agreed definition of sufficiently ventilated when it comes to the indoor spaces where New...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2022

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Better health is first result of H1 improvements

I appreciate the work Germán Molina is doing to get his PhD findings out into the world. I’ve linked to work he’s publishing on his blog, Buildings for People, before....

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jun 2022

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LEB projects in Christchurch, explained

It’s one thing to build bespoke higher-performing homes under contract for a client. It is quite another measure of risk to build spec homes that out-perform the Building Code minimums....

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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A LEB is not a PH

It’s not correct to say a Low Energy Building (LEB) is a Passive House. Yes, it is a PHI standard. But to claim it is a Passive House, as a...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jun 2022

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MBIE response (and ours) to NZ Emissions Reduction Plan

MBIE has summarised its take on the New Zealand Emissions Reduction Plan. Building for Climate Change (BfCC) will be its tool to make this happen through legislation. We will finally...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: May 2022

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Great developments in NZ social housing

Kāinga Ora’s priorities for New Zealand social housing were laid out in a recent detailed article in Architecture Now, which is worth reading in full. It charts the agency’s journey...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Four tools for scaling up Passive House adoption: international review

This in-depth international review, The Keys to Successful Passive House Implementation, aimed to identify how to successfully implement Passive House construction at scale. The research was commissioned by the California...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2022

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How to decarbonise NZ schools

Clear, specific and timely actions to reduce schools’ operational and embodied carbon footprint are contained in a recent Ministry of Education (MoE) report, . The recommendations are excellent and they...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: May 2022

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