This note was reviewed and approved for currency in August 2018. Insulation and thermal mass are highly effective ways to reduce energy use and improve comfort in buildings. Insulation reduces the rate or speed of heat transfer through a building ...

Biodiversity, the variety of life on earth, is required for the health of the natural environment and the continuation of the human species.  Though Australia has large endowments of biodiversity, human activities over the past 220 years have had ...

The benefits of green roofs have been well documented over the last twenty years and yet their implementation in Australia has been slower than in other developed countries. This paper goes beyond the EDG introductory paper DES 53: Roof and Facade ...

The previous version of this note (Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings by Deo Prasad May 1995) emphasised the need for including fundamental concepts of energy efficiency such as climatically suitable designs and forms, benefits of tailored ...

Environmental design is in the broadest sense, the human response to the understanding that we are a part of our environment. This is the design realisation that ecology matters.  This area of human endeavour has undergone a rapid transformation in ...

This paper provides a critique of the Water sensitive urban design (WSUD) paradigm by discussing its congruence with an established sustainable design principle called 'whole system design'. It was found that WSUD is congruent with the whole system ...

Sustainability imperatives are starting to drive business decisions and government policies. As solutions are sought to developing environmental assessments, it is important to know how much energy, water or chemical has gone into manufacturing a ...

This note was reviewed in October 2018 and retained for legacy. This paper and its companion paper summarise reports published by the consulting firm GHD in 2003 and 2009 and in particular summarises final results of a two year trial of 6 ...

Good indoor environment quality (IEQ) can have a positive impact on the health, wellbeing and productivity of occupants in office buildings. Productivity benefits can potentially be financial as well as intangible in nature, and can be realised at ...

Residential buildings account for around 13 per cent of the Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, and numerous studies have identified energy efficiency in residential buildings as one of the most cost effective approaches to climate change ...