Over the last decades, Australia has taken several measures to tackle the increasing trend of energy use in residential buildings. Recently, the Trajectory for Low Energy Buildings has been endorsed aiming to reduce energy usage in residential buildings. However, the primary focus of this trajectory is on decreasing operational energy without considering the embodied energy of the building and systems. This paper aims to address one primary question; ‘can the continued exclusion of embodied energy from the energy efficiency regulations effectively lead to reducing energy consumption in Australian residential buildings?’. The findings indicate that embodied energy becomes a dominating factor as buildings’ thermal performances increase according to the Australian energy efficiency regulations. In transitioning from a standard 6.0-star building to a highly energy-efficient 8.7-star building, the proportion of embodied energy significantly increases from 20–40% to 50–75%. This study recommends establishing minimum mandatory requirements for buildings’ embodied performance.

在过去的几十年中，澳大利亚采取了多项措施来应对住宅建筑能源使用日益增长的趋势。最近，低能耗建筑的轨迹得到了认可，旨在减少住宅建筑的能源使用。然而，这条轨迹的主要焦点是在不考虑建筑物和系统的隐含能源的情况下减少运营能源。本文旨在解决一个主要问题；'能效法规中持续排除隐含能源能否有效降低澳大利亚住宅建筑的能源消耗？?'。研究结果表明，根据澳大利亚能源效率法规，随着建筑物热性能的提高，隐含能源成为主要因素。在从标准 6.0 星级建筑过渡到高能效 8.7 星级建筑的过程中，隐含能源的比例从 20-40% 显着增加至 50-75%。本研究建议为建筑物的体现性能建立最低强制性要求。