BASIX or Building Sustainability Index is a scheme introduced by the government

Government of New South Wales

The form of the Government of New South Wales is prescribed in its Constitution, which dates from 1856, although it has been amended many times since then...

 of New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 in 2004 to regulate the energy efficiency

Efficient energy use

Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the goal of efforts to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a home allows a building to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a comfortable temperature...

 of residential building

Building

In architecture, construction, engineering, real estate development and technology the word building may refer to one of the following:...

s. It offers an online assessment tool for rating the expected performance of any residential development in terms of water efficiency, thermal comfort

Thermal comfort

Thermal comfort is a term used by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, an international body. It is defined as the state of mind in humans that expresses satisfaction with the surrounding environment...

 and energy usage. It aims to reduce water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 40% compared to pre-BASIX (2004) buildings.

Developers have complained about additional costs for apartment buildings.

Monitoring

Monitoring of occupied BASIX single dwellings conducted by Sydney Water

Sydney Water

Sydney Water is a New South Wales government owned corporation that provides drinking water, wastewater and some stormwater services to Sydney, Illawarra and the Blue Mountains, in Australia...

confirmed that the actual water savings were 40.6% in 2008 and 37.6% in 2009.