Councils offer homeowners free eco-design advice

The EDAs will be available to make site visits to building projects.

According to building research company BRANZ's senior scientist, Roman Jaques, the scheme is being offered to councils to make BRANZ sustainability research findings available to designers, builders and homeowners.

"Our research over a number of projects shows eco-friendly building design, building materials, energy and water management systems create a lot of interest. Making an EDA available to councils is a practical way of transferring the outcomes of this research to those who are most likely to use it," he said.

The pilot starts runs for ten months from September and may be extended to other councils afterwards.

The Ministry for the Environment and the Building Research Association of New Zealand (which owns BRANZ) jointly fund the project, as well as the three participating councils.