Abstract
Sustainability implementation in new housing in Australia lags much of the developed world’s standards and implementation levels for residential sustainability. Various reasons for this are offered via a ‘blame game’ in a sector plagued by lack of demand, prohibitive costs, and poorly implemented existing energy efficiency regulations. Multiple gaps in traditional supply-led procurement theory inhibits sustainability’s implementation in the Australian mass production residential construction system. Once-off consumers are not the key demand actor due to their inability to demand sustainability in a system that limits consumers’ choice and demand. Warren-Myers and Heywood (2016) theorized that the mass-producing Volume Builders are the pivotal demand-side actor in mainstreaming sustainability in the Australian new housing system. This paper investigated the Volume Builders’ roles and relationships with traditional demand-side actors, housing consumers, and the supply-side’s subcontractors and suppliers, to identify the ultimate demand actor that drives the housing industry. The investigation used semi-structured interviews with Volume Builders. The results demonstrated Volume Builders’ dominance of the Australian residential mass production construction industry validating their pivotal role as a demand-side actor in a consumption-based demand and supply model. This identifies Volume Builders as the key actor who could then drive wide-spread adoption of sustainability innovation in Australian mass-produced housing.
Highlights
In Australia, construction and utilization of the built environment account for 45% of annual energy consumption [1] and 18.1% of Australia’s carbon footprint [2]
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the roles and relationships of actors in the Australian new housing industry to clearly demonstrate if the framework introduced above is applicable to the Australian residential construction sector
Much previous work is limited because it only examines part of the system rather than the whole. This suggests that a new whole-of-system perspective is required, for mass-produced housing which is a significant proportion of new Australian residential construction
Summary
In Australia, construction and utilization of the built environment account for 45% of annual energy consumption [1] and 18.1% of Australia’s carbon footprint [2]. The Australian housing construction sector is dominated by Volume Builders. The Top 100 builders (by volume), account for 45% of new housing construction and the top 20 of which accounts for 57% [3] Their domination increased by 8.5% in 2016/17 and as housing construction starts to decline in the current economic climate, Volume Builders’ continued growth strengthens their dominance of the sector. Volume Builders apply traditional design and construction procurement approaches on an industrial scale to mass-produce homes. This has resulted in an oligopoly of Volume Builders competing to attract customers that could be a barrier to, or change agent for, increased sustainability
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
