‘Less is more’ when we discuss sustainable housing.

Australia’s houses are the equal largest in the world but we know that billions of others also live happy lives in smaller homes. Between our super-sized homes and their sizes is a more sustainable option. Every time we enlarge our homes we; use up more land, use more materials, take away from the ecology, use more energy to feel comfortable and spend more money to maintain it all. It’s noted that more size often comes with less quality and that a big house comes with a big bad footprint.

We can use good design to better our homes and to have a smaller house that does not feel smaller, simply by clever (efficient) use of spaces, by having multi-use spaces, avoiding ‘dead’ spaces and optimising our vertical space.

Small is more sustainable in construction costs also, as each m2 we don’t build saves roughly $2’500 on house construction costs (2025 figures), as well as saving on running costs over time.

As well as total build size, we can also re-consider the size of individual rooms, such as choosing to have a double-bed in double-bed size rooms (instead of Queen), then saving (3m2 x 3 rooms x $2’500/m2, or,) over $20’000 in construction costs on new homes with 3 non-master bedrooms. (2025 figures.)

When designing new builds, by including multi-use rooms, adopting double-story homes (to save on land) and eliminating wasted spaces (such as unnecessary hallways) we can all contribute greatly to sustainability. For existing homes, there are retrofit options also, such as sealing off rooms when not in use (short or long term) or repurposing rooms for more efficient usage. Such changes can make a larger home run like a smaller home.

Waste, and Less Waste.

Less rubbish, fewer skips, less land-fill, and more of the alternatives.
We include waste in this section of ‘small’, to encourage smaller consumption, fewer materials in construction and less rubbish skips. Waste is best addressed before it appears and good planning will greatly reduce the volume of wastage that ends up in land-fill.

Construction and its demolition produces about 40% of Australia’s total waste, though good planning can ensure much of this can be avoided. The key to reducing any waste, including construction waste, are the 5 Rs: refuse, reduce, repurpose, reuse, recycle, and we have many opportunities to adopt these practices in both new builds and retro-fits.

Waste minimisation starts with good design and planning.
Keeping waste in mind throughout the design and construction of a home will ensure that the amount sent to landfill is minimised. For example: designing room lengths and heights to use standard timber pieces, rather than designing rooms a bit larger (or smaller) and so avoid endless timber/ tile off-cuts and waste. Designing a flat roof, rather than a pitched roof (or using a window shade instead of an eave) saves a lot of materials and cost.

Reducing construction waste lowers the environmental impact and saves money by reducing material costs, transport costs/ time and landfill levies.
Reducing construction waste also:

• Lessens the amount of raw materials extracted from the environment, 
• Reduces air/ water/ land pollution (as a result of the extraction and processing of raw materials)
• Lowers the amount of land lost to landfill sites.
• allows the expansion of the circular economy.

Key building waste action examples:

• Reduce, by building a smaller home and/or designing to reduce wastage.
• Reuse/repurpose, by sourcing materials that have been salvaged for reuse.
• Recycle, by finding local recycling operators, and buying materials with high proportions of recycled content.
• Involve the designer and builder in waste minimisation: ensure that waste minimisation is specified in contracts.
• Adaptively reuse a whole house, rather than demolish and re-build.

Reference: National Waste Policy (summarised as ‘Less waste, more resources’).

National Waste Policy – DCCEEW