INTHEBLACK August 2025 - Magazine - Page 33
Globally, cities face a critical
shortage of two billion
affordable homes by 2100.
Australia’s Green Building
Council is driving scalable
solutions to reconcile housing
demand with emissions cuts.
IT IS A TALE OF TOO MANY CITIES.
On the one hand, the World Bank estimates
80 per cent of the world’s cities do not have
adequate affordable housing options.
This means that two billion homes need
to be built over the next 75 years — 96,000
new and affordable homes every day.
At the same time, these homes must be
built without exacerbating global emissions.
According to the World Green Building
Council, buildings produce 39 per cent of
global energy-related carbon emissions,
of which 11 per cent come from materials
and construction.
In Australia, where concrete, steel and
aluminium account for nearly 70 per cent
of buildings’ embodied carbon,
decarbonising construction while scaling
housing supply has become a contested
space. The argument is that it is not possible
to build housing on a mass scale while also
lowering emissions.
Barriers persist in outdated
valuation models and
fragmented policies.
The Green Building Council of Australia
(GBCA) and other experts disagree.
The GBCA is at the forefront of this debate,
advocating for innovative methods of
sustainable home building that address
the accommodation crisis and environmental
limits. Its strategies offer a way to reconcile
the need for large-scale housing construction
with the planet in mind.
GREEN STAR INITIATIVE
Launched in 2020, GBCA’s Green Star
Homes program targets scalability, which
is one of the most stubborn barriers
to sustainable housing. By partnering with
volume homebuilders, the initiative aims
to encourage builders to adopt energyefficient designs and materials, ensuring
affordability does not come at the cost
of climate resilience.
“Scale is critical to driving down costs,”
says Elham Monavari, GBCA’s head of green
intheblack.cpaaustralia.com.au 33
