BASIX Recognises Passive House Pathway

On 27 November 2020, the Australian Passive House Association (APHA) announced that BASIX now recognises the Passive House Standard as a pathway to meeting the thermal comfort requirements of the NSW State Environmental Planning Policy.

The Building Sustainability Index (BASIX) is one of Australia’s strongest sustainable planning measures and has been required in NSW since 2004. It requires all projects to meet requirements for energy, thermal comfort and water with the aim of encouraging sustainable residential development.

Until now, all projects seeking approval in New South Wales were required to either use NatHERS or the BASIX DIY tool to prove that their design would achieve the thermal comfort requirements of BASIX.

The removal of this cost impost of Passive House projects having to undertake modelling in multiple software packages is a win for designers and consumers.

Click here to read APHA's media release to discover more.

Below is a free webinar by APHA and Dr Kevin Yee, Senior Policy Advisor at the NSW Department of Planning, Industry, and Environment, on the recent changes to BASIX.