This note was reviewed and approved for currency in August 2018.  This note provides a background introduction to the lost art of designing for natural ventilation, and discusses some of the more useful rules of thumb. It considers the principal ...

This note, originally published in August 2000, was reviewed by Dr Graham Treloar in June 2005. This summary page includes recent updates to the topic since publication. This Note considers the embodied energy of building materials in the context of ...

This note includes descriptions of the different systems used for the on-site treatment and disposal/reuse of domestic wastewaters from residential developments in non-sewered areas in Australia. It also examines greywater treatment and reuse, which ...

This note was reviewed and approved for currency in August 2018.  This paper describes how green roofs influence the energy performance of a hypothetical commercial office building in each of the Australian Building Code Board’s eight climate zones ...

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 ...

We need artificial light in our daily lives, but we can have too much of it. Light pollution might be defined as excess artificial light, in the wrong place at the wrong time. Awareness of the problem, in Australia and elsewhere, has been growing ...

Read time: 25 minutes A summary update has been provided for this note in June 2023. This summary reflects updates to this topic on the National Construction Code 2022 and BASIX. There is an urgent need to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to net ...

The paper and its companion paper summarise reports published by the consulting firm GHD in 2003 and 2009 and in particular summarise final results of a two year trial of 6 urine-separating dry composting toilets and 2 waterless urinals at a new ...