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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What does NZ’s first deep retrofit teach us?

New Zealand’s first certified EnerPHit project began back in 2019. A very expensive and complex undertaking, it’s taken three years to complete. Sustainable Engineering’s Jason Quinn got involved not as...

by Rachel Rose

Updated: Jul 2022

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Ngā Kāinga Anamata passes pre-construction review

Update 16May2024 We want folks to know that Kainga Ora has regretfully informed us that they are now in the process of officially closing the R&D component of the project...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Scaling up PH trades training

New Zealand needs more tradespeople, full stop. But we also need tradies with skills and experience of building the Passive House way, especially as larger certified projects get underway.  In...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Haiku sums up warmer home benefits

Who the hell composes a haiku as the summary in a technical report to a government agency? A New Zealander, that’s who. I love this country. People’s ability to care...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2022

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Elements of building industry lobbying to delay H1 changes

Like I’ve said before, if we want to change, we actually will need to change. Seems simple enough, right? But many in the “pro-cold-home” contingent of our building sector don’t...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2022

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Builder backlash to H1 upgrade begins

And, it’s begun: the backlash to the update to the energy efficiency requirements in New Zealand’s Building Code announced last November. It’s been a long time since the last upgrade....

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2022

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998 days to reach climate change reduction goals

The latest IPCC report emphasises that we have to peak our CO2 emissions by 2025 at the latest to reach 1.5 degrees global warming, to follow those rational paths that...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Student skimp on food to pay rent on cold, mouldy flats

Radio New Zealand has really done an excellent job of summarising the plight of New Zealand university students—all in less than four minutes. Listen here, to hear how bad it...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2022

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