Creating green healthy environments will continue to underpin major design elements of future housing developments, the Urban Development Institute of Australia Victoria (UDIA (VIC) said today. 

Executive Director of UDIA (VIC), Tony De Domenico said, "the current carbon tax and climate change debate, combined with sky rocketing energy and water prices across Victoria, has placed a sharp focus on green and healthy developments where home buyers were looking at the running costs of their new home and the quality of their surrounding environment."

"Home buyers are becoming more and more discerning. They want to buy a lifestyle, not just a house and land package and they want this lifestyle to be sustainable," Mr De Domenico said.

"Three years ago the UDIA (VIC) launched the EnviroDevelopment program, a scientifically-based branding system designed to make it easier for purchasers to recognise and select more environmentally sustainable developments and lifestyles."

"The EnviroDevelopment program is unique in that it assesses the whole of a development for its sustainability credentials, not just individual homes. Its accreditation system recognises excellence in the areas of water, energy, ecosystems, community, materials and waste."

"Many housing developments by UDIA (VIC) members over the past decade have made substantial contributions to local and collectively environments through the creation of parks, wetlands, lakes, cycling and walking paths, enhancing habitat for wildlife."

Mr De Domenico said the design of many projects has provided home buyers the opportunity to be able to orientate tens of thousands of homes to maximise the heating and money saving benefits of passive solar energy.