A ‘passive’ approach to Net Zero for New Zealand social housing – preliminary findings

Zhao, Jill

Abstract

New Zealand's first emissions reduction plan sets out goals to achieve Net Zero for all GHG and a 24-47% reduction in biogenic methane by 2050. Buildings contribute to 10-15% of overall domestic emissions in New Zea-land (NZ). Reducing operational emissions and embodied carbon of buildings is crucial to achieving the sector's Net Zero goals. Social housing poses a par-ticular challenge among all housing stocks during the process of decarboni-sation. Low carbon building standards, especially Passivhaus (PH), have been gaining popularity in continental Europe and the UK. Larger scale social housing scheme designed to achieve PH or Near Passivhaus (NPH) standard has proven to be especially beneficial in reducing carbon emissions. Howev-er, NZ buildings designed and constructed based on the PH standard are per-ceived to be more expensive, making them less likely to be adopted. This pa-per reviews New Zealand social housing and PH development literature to summarise barriers, challenges and opportunities, and reports successful case studies from the UK to provide lessons learned that can inform New Zealand PH social housing development. The outcomes of this paper provide prelimi-nary recommendations for stakeholders in New Zealand when considering adopting the PH methodology for social housing development whilst calling for more research into the Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) of PH or NPH housing in New Zealand to understand the applicability of PH standard and to maximise the benefit of the PH methodology.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: International Conference of Smart and Sustainable Built Environment (SASBE 2024)
• Start Date: Nov 7, 2024
• End Date: Nov 9, 2024
• Acceptance Date: Sep 11, 2024
• Deposit Date: Nov 17, 2024
• Journal: Proceedings of the International Conference of Smart and Sustainable Built Environment (SASBE 2024)
• Publisher: Springer Nature [academic journals on nature.com]
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/13442057