Exploring the energy efficiency conversation in the Australian volume home building sector

Housing with high operational energy efficiency has the potential to positively contribute towards the global environmental challenge of climate change. Further, these types of homes can provide social and financial household benefits such as improved health and wellbeing, and reduced cost of living. Although these potential benefits are well known, the adoption of higher standards of energy efficiency in new Australian housing is not widespread. This is in part a result of limited mandatory requirements (compared to the benchmarks of other developed economies), and limitations to demand creation by consumers – two contributing features of an ongoing ‘blame game’ between consumer, government and industry stakeholders. This paper focuses on the dominant providers of new housing in Australia, the volume home builders. These organisations occupy an influential position in the system of new housing supply, informing and directing the choices of inexperienced homebuyers, and providing work opportunities to a large supply chain of building contractors and trades. But recent studies reveal that sustainability measures such as energy efficiency are not well promoted or prioritised by the sector. This paper presents preliminary findings from an exploration of the current energy efficiency ‘conversation’ between volume home building organisations and their potential homebuyers, as revealed by a content analysis of organisational websites. The preliminary review investigates the type of language being used to describe and promote the various housing products and options on offer, and its relationship to energy efficiency. This study establishes an evidence base for the current energy efficiency conversation in the volume home building sector, in order to identify opportunities for a more productive conversation, and the mainstreaming of higher energy efficiency performance in new housing