Eco Building Design Adviser

The Eco Building Design Advisor offers free, independent, factual and practical advice for ratepayers and residents of Nelson city. Residents are provided with tailored, research-based information for new homes, alterations, and existing homes.

Who can use the service

The free service is for homeowners, tenants, landlords, designers, building professionals, renovators, and community groups. Anyone who would like advice on how to improve the health and performances of existing homes, or if renovating, building new.

How the service works

The Eco Building Design Advisor can give you advice over the telephone or can arrange to visit you at your home, office, or building site and spend up to 2 hours with you on queries specific to your property or proposal.

Book a consultation

Contact Richard Popenhagen, the Eco Building Design Advisor, by email or by phone on +64 3 546 0251 during normal working hours Monday through Friday.

Background info

The Eco Design Advisor service runs in a range of councils across New Zealand, as the result of a Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ) initiative. It was developed in direct response to research that found there was a lack of well-targeted, independent and expert information on environmental building available for homeowners and the building industry as a whole.  

Independent surveys have found the Eco Design Advisor service to be very effective. The 2012- 2013 national BRANZ survey found:

• Having an energy efficient and warmer house were the top two motivating factors to use the Eco Design Advisor service.
• Reducing running costs was also a high priority motivator.
• A total of 94% of the respondents said the advice was either: useful, quite useful or very useful.
• 81% of participants indicated that they had made changes as a result of the advice given and 83% said they intended to make further additional changes.