Suburbia is the least sustainable form of urban living. Houses spread out at such low densities that too much land, too much energy and too much infrastructure is needed to support too few people.

Every metric is stretched in building and running suburbia: excessive road areas and lengths of infrastructure for electricity, water, stormwater and sewage; huge material demands to build McMansions; and inefficient catchments for retail, schools, hospitals, and the like.

Energy use is exorbitant in powering the freestanding, poorly insulated houses with overly exposed surface areas; not to mention all those services over long distances and an overdependence on ICE SUVs to get to the mega malls and drive children to private schools and sporting fields.

So how bad is that for Australia? We love the bush myth, but we are the most urban nation in the OECD, with over 40% of us in just two cites, Sydney and Melbourne, which would be the 6^th and 7^th biggest cities if they were in the USA. And we are the most suburban as well, Sydney has half the population, in the same area, as Los Angeles, usually regarded the ne plus ultra of unsustainable low density living. We are world champion suburbanites.

The usual remedy is to increase the density: houses grouped together are more energy efficient; employment is closer; children can walk, cycle or bus to a local school; road areas are less, with slower speeds and greater safety; shared infrastructure is better; and distributing goods, such as groceries, is more efficient.

But efforts to increase suburban densities, through better housing in the ‘missing middle’ (see the newly released NSW portal that shows exemplars) have met with NIMBY (not in my backyard) and NOTE (not over there either) obstinacy. Wholesale change in densities is being fiercely resisted.

But counterintuitively, there is a sustainable upside in current suburbia, found in two statistics. Australia has the highest uptake of photovoltaic PV solar panels on roofs in the world; and the highest uptake of electric vehicles is in our cities’ outer suburbs.

PV panels have a singular beauty: the energy is distributed to the house by the sun, not wires. Add batteries and there is energy independence. The impact of this innovation cannot be overestimated. At a stroke it lowers the need for transmission lines from power stations AND the energy costs to the consumer. Less dependence on fossil fuels and poles and wires through ecologically sensitive areas can only be a good thing.

But PV panels need large areas, which the far-scattered Aussie suburban homes have in abundance. So it is easy to understand how individual homeowners have taken to PVs with alacrity. Low installation costs can lead to big energy savings. Nothing to do with climate change, it’s all to do with the economics.

The knock-on effect of PVs is EVs. All that free energy from the solar panels can be used to power the battery of an electric vehicle in the garage. The last issue sets suburbia apart from trendy inner-city areas where you would think EVs would proliferate. The inability to easily charge electric vehicles without off-street parking or chargers in apartment basements in the city has led to a comparatively greater uptake in suburbia.

Once again economics trumps green concerns. All those long distances, in multiple vehicles, from the suburbs to work or services, have a huge fuel bill at the end of it. No wonder the preferred EV model in Australia is the SUV. Ironically, and inversely, the car may become the household battery. And incidentally, the more sustainable solution comes out trumps.

Nevertheless, many of the downsides of suburbia will remain: the social isolation for those at home all day; the distances and time getting to work or school or the shops. More trees needed on increasingly smaller sites to reduce the urban heat island effect.

But the sustainable upswing has started. Fossil fuel consumption, in both forms of gas (at the pump and in the pipes) will decline with solar energy powering the suburbs. It has little to do with concern for climate change and everything to do with renewables becoming cheaper and more available. Well may we say that the green karma is running over the brown dogma.

Next week: Seeking Sustainable Suburbia 2: More Density.

This is Tone on Tuesday #207, 7 May 2024, written by Tone Wheeler, architect / Adjunct Prof UNSW / President AAA. The views expressed are his. Past Tone on Tuesday columns can be found here. You can contact TW at [email protected].