A quick shout-out to the team at The Fifth Estate, who do a great job of spreading the word on zero carbon and environmentally-positive buildings. They've been operating since 2009, producing an "online newspaper for the sustainable built environment and all the businesses, professionals, academics, government agencies, community groups, not-for-profits, individuals in Australia and globally who want to be part of the sustainability revolution."
They've just published a new e-book called Extreme Green Buildings. You can download it for free here.
What's an 'extreme green building'? They point for four key principles for developing green buildings.
net positive outcomes: correcting historical damage, creating resilient outcomes that are mentally and physically healing
designing with nature: nature literacy and enabling natural systems
embracing local contexts: seeking to be in harmony with the local ecology while respecting the historical and cultural contexts
achieving total circularity of resources.
They're really trying to push the envelope out beyond just being a bit less damaging and even beyond 'net zero' to something a lot more ambitious and nature-positive. A series of short chapters deal with issues related to leadership, materials and measurement, energy services and finance and there are specific sections on commercial and residential buildings.
This is a resource for buildings in general and some of it won't be applicable to social housing, but there's a lot for social and affordable housing providers to learn from this. I'd encourage you to check it out!
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