Sustainable strategies for fixing housing supply gaps

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.

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.

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