A practical approach to climate change in the building industry

11 December 2024

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We explore practical building solutions to climate change: reduce pollution, build efficient homes, and support local manufacturing.

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Climate change. A touchy subject I know… some think it’s the end of humanity, and some think it’s a hoax. I’d rather take a more practical approach.

Instead of fixating solely on reducing carbon emissions, which can be complex and uncertain, we should focus on tangible actions. The focus in our industry specifically, should be about how we can reduce pollution, build longer lasting healthy homes, and make them the most energy efficient. This is something we can see and measure straight away.

Climate change seems to be on young people’s minds; like the world is all of a sudden going to come to an end and that there’s no hope unless we make radical change. This is not helpful, and only stirs up climate anxiety. It encourages irrational decision making and radical changes that affect industry, which in turn affects price. It’s important to channel our passion for the environment into effective solutions that are economically feasible for everyone, not just the privileged few.

The environment has always been a passion of mine, literally since I was a kid. But in recent years I’m learning more about the ‘green industry’ and the damage it’s actually causing. Lets use solar for an example – 70-80% of the world’s solar panels are made in China. This means we’re offsetting our energy consumption for manufacturing these panels to another country with poor regulations, and at the same time, this is the country that’s building a new coal plant almost every week.

Meanwhile in Australia, a country rich in coal, we’re paying upwards of $48c a KW for electricity in some cases. This is partly due to the mass scale of unreliable renewable energy being implemented. The technology is unfortunately not there to meet the demand, and it’s costing the average Joe an arm and a leg. Just to give you an idea, back in 2019 a KW was 15c, it’s now triple that. So your typical $400 bill just bumped up to $1,200.

While installing solar panels may seem like a solution, it’s not accessible to everyone due to the high upfront costs and questionable returns on investment. Don’t get me wrong, I do love solar and being able to create and store your own energy. But this still comes at a cost to your pocket, and also to the environment.

Despite these challenges, it’s crucial to keep pushing for positive changes in the industry. This means fostering local manufacturing to create jobs and keep prices competitive. We need to consider economics when it comes to this decision making, as there’s no point in doing any of this if the cost of building is so unattainable for people.

If we want to make a difference, we need the volume, not just the top 2-5% of the population building ‘green and eco’. We need more manufacturing in Australia, not overseas, and we can only do this if energy is cheap. It’s about finding a balance between environmental sustainability and economic viability. We need the focus to be on practical solutions that benefit both the environment and our wallets.