The opportunity to live just a stone’s throw away from the beach inspires many prospective homeowners to set their sights on the Gold Coast. Not only are there major lifestyle benefits to buying or building on the Gold Coast, but being so connected to Queensland’s natural beauty also changes your own values. You want to do your part to protect the city coastline and preserve the marine habitats, the grasslands, and green corridors that surround your home.
This is exactly why eco home builds have skyrocketed in popularity across the Gold Coast. Gold coast builders have also risen to this cause themselves, providing homeowners with access to sustainable building materials and amenities for their future-ready homes.
But what goes into an environmentally sustainable home building? How can you make sure your eco home is built to not only be kind to the planet, but also to weather coastal climatic conditions? Here are some of the major considerations that go into building environmentally sustainable homes on the Gold Coast.
Work with local builders and materials suppliers
As mentioned, working with local home builders is vital to making sure your home is sustainable from its foundation up. This is because Australian home builders can provide buyers with access to local supplier partners, which means you’ll be able to secure Australian-made tiles, timber, countertops, and more for your new home build.
The added benefit of using locally sourced materials is you can save on import tariffs and global shipping costs for imported materials. Not to mention that the carbon emissions resulting from global shipping will turn your build’s carbon footprint from a tiptoe to a stomp.
You’ll likely also find a wide range of options available to you from local builders and their supply partners. So even if you are on a modest budget, there’s a chance you can still snap up some locally produced marble countertops for a fraction of their retail price.
And if you’re a first home buyer, working with a local home builder will mean even more added flexibility, as builders often provide deals for those eligible for the First Home Owners’ Grant in Queensland. With these additional savings, you can allocate more of your home building budget towards securing high-quality build materials from local suppliers that are sure to last a lifetime.
Design for passive heating and cooling
Queensland’s tropical climate means that Gold Coast living can get a little sweaty and sticky year-round. And in monsoon season, the coastal winds can also get quite vicious and may cause damage to properties that haven’t been designed expressly for the climate.
To combat the region’s naturally humid climate, more home builders are incorporating passive heating and cooling design principles into their Gold Coast builds. Some of these passive design measures include:
- Designing with solar orientation and shading in mind to reduce heat exposure
- Installing external cladding with high or low thermal mass (depending on climate)
- Designing homes with tall ceilings to pull heat upwards
- Improving home ventilation to support cooling internal air flow
- Optimising window coverings and door/window seals to support insulation
Considering passive heating and cooling principles when designing new homes can ensure your Gold Coast property stays cool in summer, warm in winter, and is optimised to maintain consistently low energy consumption from season to season, helping you save big on your utility bills and do your part for the planet too.
Add green amenities like solar, water tanks, and composting
It stands to reason that green homes need green amenities. And as the Gold Coast gets plenty of sunshine and rainwater, there’s arguably nowhere better to invest in both solar PV systems and water tanks for your eco-friendly home.
Again, home builders with local knowledge can help ensure your Gold Coast build is designed to maximise solar gains. This means ensuring you have a suitable north-facing roof to capture as much sunlight as possible, from the sun’s first rising in the east to its setting in the west.
Why north-facing rooftops? Because the sun actually lines up perfectly with the equator, so here in the southern hemisphere, the sun is positioned in a more northerly aspect, towards the equator. Passive design comes in handy for installing solar panels too!
Then there are green amenities like water tanks and compost bins for your garden space. Gardening is not only good for the soul, it’s also foundational for a healthy, eco-friendly life. So if you’re looking to inspire your kids to eat fresh foods and perhaps even grow their own fruits and veggies, make sure your eco-friendly home build also includes these human-friendly green gardening amenities.
Create cohesion between indoor and outdoor living spaces
One of the best things about designing an environmentally sustainable home is simply just being able to enjoy the natural assets you’re working to protect. Just look at Hook Island’s eco-lodge as a prime example here. With energy-efficient appliances, waste-water recycling infrastructure, and erosion management strategies, these ‘biophilic’ havens ensure their environmental impact is as minimal as possible to keep the majesty of the Whitsundays intact for generations of guests to enjoy.
Your Gold Coast home can follow these same principles, maintaining sustainable practices so you can actively enjoy all the benefits of outdoor living. This is exactly why so many Gold Coast properties are built with outdoor living amenities, like glass folding doors that allow you to bring the outside in, and outdoor entertaining areas for easy backyard barbies, pool parties, and all the other celebrations we Queenslanders love to host out under the stars.
The best eco-friendly homes incorporate the values of outdoor living into their interior design too, creating seamless flows between indoor and outdoor spaces. And truth be told, there are countless ways you can incorporate natural elements into your home design to create biophilic interiors. From using natural origin materials like terra cotta tiles and marble countertops to exposed stone walls and more, we highly recommend chatting to your home builder about how your Gold Coast build can bring the outside in and vice versa.
Live green on the Gold Coast with your own eco home build
Living green on the Gold Coast is actually easier than you may think – just so long as you have the right resources, supports, and strategies at your disposal. With the tips we’ve outlined above, you and your builders and supply partners should be able to prepare materials and finalise design plans for a truly environmentally sustainable home build that your family can enjoy for decades to come, come rain or wind or shine.
