Energy Justice in Apartment Buildings and the Spatial Scale of Energy Sustainable Design Regulations in Australia and the UK

Abstract

Energy vulnerability is a growing concern in many OECD countries post-millennium. An increasing number of residents go without heating or cooling necessities to manage the financial strains of increasing energy costs, low wage growth, and rising housing costs. Housing design quality contributes significantly to a dwelling's energy use and the resident's potential energy vulnerability with good orientation enabling passive climate control or, alternatively, poor design resulting in a reliance on artificial heating, cooling, and lighting for livability. Housing design regulations are accepted as an important tool in planning for achieving energy sustainability and mitigating climate change. However, this article argues for greater recognition and knowledge regarding regulation's ability to protect against energy vulnerability at the residential scale, particularly in the growing number of apartments purchased for the rental market in Australia. By observing the energy sustainability of apartments deemed permissible by Australian and UK regulations, this research demonstrates the significance of building scale in regulations when applied to apartments buildings. An energy justice lens reveals a distinction between measurement at the whole building level and the individual apartment/resident scale in this building typology in particular.

Informing a strategy for circular economy housing in Australia

“…There is evidence of broad support from end-users for sustainable buildings in all parts of the market, including from renters, social housing providers (SHPs) and owner-occupiers, from the lowest-cost dwellings to highest-end apartments (Foster, Hooper et al 2020;Gower 2021;Holdsworth 2019 in Easthope, Palmer et al 2023).…”

Delivering sustainable apartment housing: New build and retrofit

“…Reviewing international post-occupancy studies of high-rise apartment buildings, Kalantari and Shepley (2020) observe residents' sustainable behaviours are limited by the buildings they occupy, with associated psychological and social impacts. An Australian study by Gower (2021) identifies how capacity for sustainable living in apartment buildings varies with tenure, concluding renters are more disempowered than owner-occupiers in selecting individual apartments with fundamentally sustainable design features such as appropriate solar orientation. A large study of the lived experience of Melbourne and Perth apartment residents shows private rental tenants are disproportionately impacted by poor design and build quality relative to co-resident owners (Nethercote 2022).…”

“…There is evidence of broad support from end-users for sustainable buildings in all parts of the market, including from renters, social housing providers, and owner-occupiers from the lowest cost dwellings to highest-end apartments (Foster et al 2020;Gower 2021;Moore and Holdsworth 2019). Examining the Victorian residential construction sector, Shooshtarian et al (2021) suggest current discourse places much of the blame for the unsustainability of housing on owners and occupiers, with industry arguing they build what people want and they would build more sustainable buildings if people wanted them.…”

Australia's Experience of Combining Building Energy Standards and Disclosure Regulation

“…There are many policy options or combinations of policy options from which to choose. Similarly, the benefits of energy efficiency are numerous with human health, poverty alleviation, energy security and equity, and environmental improvements amongst the multiple reasons for policy implementation (International Energy Agency, 2014;Moore et al, 2017;Bouzarovski, 2018;Willand and Horne, 2018;Daniel et al, 2019;Willand et al, 2019;Kearns, 2020;Gower, 2021).…”