Why an inner-city apartment lifestyle is eco-friendly

Inner-city apartments are more than just luxurious and convenient homes with access to the best modern amenities, they are also great for the environment.

Australian cities such as Melbourne and Sydney have incredible public transport infrastructure, and when you live in an inner-city apartment you have access to it all. From buses to trains and trams, you’ll never need to use your car unless you want to go on a day trip on the weekend. By reducing your car usage, you’ll be dramatically lowering your carbon footprint and living a more sustainable lifestyle.

In addition to this, developers are responding to the rising need for more environmentally friendly homes by ensuring new apartment developments include eco-friendly amenities, such as car-sharing spaces.

With more people sharing cars, there are fewer vehicles on the road, which means less embodied emissions (produced when cars are manufactured) and reduced carbon emissions. And, when you weigh up the costs of maintaining your own car and paying for insurance against the cost of a share car, it’s a no brainer — you’ll save money and the environment.

EcoWorld International has teamed up with US billionaire Elon Musk’s world-leading company Tesla to provide a sustainable car-sharing model for residents at its project Yarra One. This has an added benefit — buyers won’t need to pay for a car park they won’t use unless they want to.

Car-sharing isn’t the only vehicle innovation to target sustainability — we now have electric cars. These run on batteries which means they have zero exhaust emissions and can use renewable energy. The only problem is, we have had a lack of charging stations and parks for these kinds of cars but many apartments are providing a new solution. For example, as part of mixed-use precinct Melbourne Quarter (pictured above), Lendlease has allocated space for electric vehicle charging stations, and other developments are following suit.

For those of you who have a bike, more and more apartment projects are being designed to include on-site bike storage (such as NEUE in Macquarie Park), bike maintenance stations, and end of trip facilities, so there’s no excuse to not cycle into work every day.

All of these contribute to lowering pollution, but what about the amount of energy our homes expend in temperature control? A house is exposed to the sun on all four sides, but apartments have at least two internal walls meaning the ambient room temperature is lowered in Summer.

All of these contribute to lowering pollution, but what about the amount of energy our homes expend in temperature control? Whilst a house is exposed to external temperatures on all four sides, apartments usually have fewer walls (and no roof) exposed to the external elements, meaning the ambient room temperature is lower in Summer and more moderate in Winter – all resulting in lower energy consumption for cooling and heating.

In addition to this, apartment developments are produced to stringent building guidelines. Ed.Square in Edmonson Park has been designed to achieve a 6-star Green Star Community rating, while other projects utilise thermal design to ensure interiors remain within 18°C and 25°C.

With all these innovations, there’s no doubt living in an inner-city apartment is a great way to reduce the impact you have on the environment, and we’re excited to see what developers come up with next.

Read our article on how to clean your apartment the eco-friendly way.