Insulation Australasia (IA) has welcomed the findings of a hard-hitting government report, which calls for wide-ranging reforms to Australia’s culture of ‘non-compliance’ at all levels of the building industry.

Australia’s building industry, including domestic constructions and additions, as well as many sectors of commercial development, are falling short of mandatory performance standards – with dramatic consequences on the energy efficiency of the country’s built environment.

The release of the ‘National Energy Efficiency Building Project’ Final Report, a 260-page examination of the building industry in relation to construction practices and code compliance, vindicates hearsay that energy efficiency is frequently a sacrificial lamb to expediency and cost cutting.

The report, produced by consultants pitt&sherry in conjunction with Swinburne University of Technology for Department of Development – Government of South Australia (for all States and Territories), identified shortcomings at all levels of building construction, including inadequate or highly subjective energy efficiency assessments, product switching and materials substitution, poor initial planning guidelines regarding ‘best practice’, weaknesses in Codes based on ‘as designed’ rather than ‘as built’ outcomes, poor monitoring of projects for Code compliance, and inadequate customer knowledge or awareness.

IA supports tough initiatives to address poor practices throughout the building industry, and ultimately improve energy efficiency as a means of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. IA, therefore, supports the report’s recommendations for an overhaul of the entire industry, including mandatory product certification (testing as well as labelling), tighter documentation of full-project Code-compliance, rigorous scrutiny of adherence to specifications, and limited divergence from approved designs.

Meaningful reform will pose tremendous challenges, as a high degree of cooperation will be needed between different agencies, peak bodies and the wider building community to overturn current poor practices.

Read full media release from Insulation Australasia here.