Residential development pressure, including the necessary road and service infrastructure, has significant "greenhouse gas" implications for those communities with a declared policy of becoming more sustainable. There are three greenhouse gas footprints associated with development: the embodied energy related to the construction of homes/buildings and infrastructure (roads and services) - the capital carbon cost (CCC); the increased energy consumption associated with the new development and consequential community lifestyle related to individual family footprints, on a year-by-year basis - the revenue carbon cost (RCC); and the loss of an existing or potential carbon sink. Whether the proposed development site is in agriculture or a dormant unmanaged vegetated state, it will have a carbon sequestration status (sequestering or emitter) that needs to be identified and accounted for in opportunity/cost terms of the net overall effect of the proposed development. Presently local government largely views development applications with reference to the Resource Management Act 1991. Emissions to air, as identified in the CCC and RCC footprints, can provide an additional framework to support the objective of building more sustainable communities, bringing the international agenda of climate change into the core of the local political decision-making process. Our paper will outline the greenhouse gas management database that is being constructed to identify the CCC and RCC of new developments and discuss its potential application at a local government policy-level in support of sustainable communities.

• building: residential, house, home
• greenhouse gas emissions