The Sustainable Home Guidelines

Smarter Homes Website

The Smarter Homes Website  is an excellent source of reliable, independent information about how to design, build and renovate 'smarter' homes.

The content of Waitakere City Councils Sustainable Home Guidelines (published in 1998 with some chapters revised in 2000) was provided to the development of this website and has been incorporated into 'Smarter Homes' with the added advantage that the Smarter Homes website is regularly updated.
 
The chapters of the Sustainable Home Guidelines are still available free to download under the relevant topic headings listed above, and complete hard copies can be purchased by filling in the Sustainable Home Guidelines order form.

About the Sustainable Home Guidelines

The Sustainable Home Guidelines provide a practical guide for good practice eco-building with up to date information about energy, water, materials, safety, waste and other eco-building issues to build your dream eco home or to simply make your existing home a little more sustainable.

It will help you save money on energy and water bills, design a safer and healthier place to live and do your bit for the eco city vision.

These guidelines are not just for building or renovating a house - much of the information is about simple things you can do in your everyday life to contribute to sustainability - saving energy or water, making your home safer and healthier or just more comfortable to live in. 

The guidelines will change - they are a working document. We don't claim to know everything about these topics. And the knowledge itself is changing rapidly, with new technology, new products, and new research.  

If you are designing a new home or doing major renovations you need to supplement this material with reliable professional advice. The extra cost of commissioning a registered architect and a registered master builder is usually repaid by the knowledge, experience and security they bring to such a major investment. 

The Green Homes Scheme instituted by BRANZ (The Building Research Association of New Zealand) aims to promote sustainable building by accrediting participating architects and assessing house designs for a range of environmental, health and safety issues. You can find the names of participating architects in this area by contacting BRANZ (04 235 7600) or  the Council on 836 8000 ext 8411

While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy at the time of publication, the publishers accept no liability or responsibility for errors or omissions. 

Material may be reproduced without further licence, provided that it does not purport to be  published under Council’s authority, and that acknowledgement is made of this source.

Sustainable Home Guidelines Order Form

Note: For the following you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer in order to view and print this document.  For help opening PDF files or tips on copying information see Helpful Tips.

Sustainable Home Guidelines Order Form (Size 47K)

Acknowledgements

Waitakere City Council would like to thank the following people and organisations for their help with this project:

The Ministry for the Environment.
This project was awarded a grant from the Sustainable Management Fund to enable its publication on the Internet, and dissemination to libraries, educational institutions, and other local authorities throughout New Zealand. 

Reinhard Kanuka-Fuchs, architect and past director of the Building Biology and Ecology Institute of New Zealand, wrote the initial text for most of the chapters and drew the sketches. His expertise and enthusiasm was vital for the project.

BRANZ - The Building Research Association of New Zealand - helped review many of the chapters. Special thanks go to Roman Jaques and Nigel Isaac. BRANZ runs the Green Home Scheme, which complements these guidelines (see appendix). 

EECA - The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority - helped review the energy chapters and supplied technical support and information. Two of the chapters are based on EECA publications. Special thanks go to Liz Yeaman and Peter Benstead.

Professor Brenda Vale and Dr Robert Vale reviewed the early chapters and helped establish some scientific rigour and framework for the project. As with all the people mentioned here, they have not seen all of the text and cannot be held responsible for the contents.

Kate Wells created the graphic design components.

Graham North, chairman of the Earth Building Association of New Zealand, helped write the Earth Building chapter. Helen McCracken drafted the original Safety chapter, and Glen Moser made a major contribution to the Wastewater chapter.

A great number of people gave valuable feedback on the draft chapters, in particular Godfrey Hall (IPL Ltd), Peter Mittermueller (Auckland Regional Council), Alex Edington (Auckland City Council), Michael Szabo (Greenpeace), James Bainton (Elemental Environments) and Peter Whitehouse (Plastics Institute of New Zealand).

Many people at Council helped research and review these guidelines. Special thanks are owed to: Glenn Moser, Terry Brown, Chris Ferkins, Gordon Griffin, Lis Robins, Jeffie Mulder, Margaret Devlin, Susan Andrews, Graeme Leonard, John Downie, and Alex Singer.

The project team responsible for the project was John Mackay (editor and contributing writer), Katja Lietz (contributing writer and formatting), Michelle Edge (communications) and Grant Gillard (project sponsor).