Free Independent Personalised sustainable building advice

1. Free Independent Personalised sustainable building advice This service is an initiative by BRANZ Ltd.

2. Overview • WHAT IS IT? • Free, specialist service on energy, water and material related advice for home building projects. • WHO IS IT FOR? • Homeowners • Designers • Building Professionals • Other Community Members • WHERE IS IT? • Waitakere City, Hamilton City & • Kapiti Coast District Councils • More in the future

3. Background to Project • Pilot project currently being trialled by BRANZ Ltd. • Designed to address: • That homeowners tend to opt-out of discussions • The lack of accessible technical information available • The lack of industry expertise and a general reluctanceto implement sustainability features

4. EDA Purpose • Three primary functions: • A free supply of information • Facilitation between client, designer and trades-people • Networking between stakeholders and sustainability resources.

5. Outcomes & Benefits Three main outcomes: • Direct impact on level of sustainability in houses • Contact and education point for industry • Tangible focus point = Effective Feed-back Loop

6. Implementation • Eco Design Advisor Training • 3-day initial training workshop • Case studies & site visits • Range of tools provided • Industry expert presentations • On-Going Support • Fortnightly conference calls • Technical Advice • 3-monthly review meetings

7. Approx 300 consultations each / year (Short and long consultations) Active promotion of service through presentations Tailored advice on any sustainable design issue Consultations recorded The Advisory Process

8. Attitude and Behaviour Change Survey Improvements to the Built Environment Analysis & Evaluation • Range of Measurable Success Criteria • Two Important Components:

9. Attitude & Behaviour Change • Impact on the design community • Postal Survey • Value of Service • Attitudes & Motivations • Environmental Behaviours • 4 Sample Groups: • Designers - EDA • Designers – no EDA • Homeowners – EDA • Homeowners – no EDA

10. Research Timeline Surveys Distributed March 2007 Data Entry & Initial Analyses May - August 2007 Research Reports June - September 2007 Further Research & Analyses December 2007…….

11. Community Based Social Marketing Behaviour change ‘comes about a response to personal appeals’ • 5 Key Points to Designing an Effective Programme: • Target Behaviour • Uncover Barriers & Benefits • Design Programme to overcome steps • Pilot Programme • Implement & Evaluate • Behaviour Change Tools: • Commitments • Prompts • Social Norms • Social Diffusion www.cbsm.com

12. Green Home Scheme Analysis • Changes (both intended and actual) to the design are recorded as a result of every consultation. • Specifics examined: thermal performance, appliance resource use, water economy, site selection, spatial efficiency, indoor air quality. • A customised scoring system which is loosely based on BRANZ’s Green Home Scheme (GHS). • From this, both the relative and actual significance of the EDA consultation can be assessed.

13. The Future

14. Conclusions • Considerable enthusiasm being generated • Face-to-Face = most effective marketing channel • Scheme proving effective as a network, education and behaviour change tool

15. Acknowledgements Thank you to all our contributors and support we are currently receiving from:

16. Contact Details Lauren Christie Sustainability Scientist BRANZ Ltd. Ph: (04) 237 2059 Email: LaurenChristie@branz.co.nz Roman Jaques Senior Sustainability Scientist BRANZ Ltd. Ph: (07) 839 5360 Email: RomanJaques@branz.co.nz www.ecodesignadvisor.org.nz