In a recent presentation at the Denver Green Healthy Housing Initiative, I learned of a March 2012 New Zealand study entitled, “Multiple Benefits of Energy Efficiency.” The study conducted by the New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority reviews the benefits of its national Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart Programme, established in 2009. What’s notable about the program, and the reason I bring this study to your attention, is that researchers concluded that 90% of the benefit from energy efficiency was health related.

Health benefit studies on retrofitted houses include the following:

• Admissions to hospitals for respiratory conditions dropped by 43%

• Days off school were reduced by 23%

• Days off work dropped 39%

The study also identified the costs of certain diseases: causal links between cold and damp housing and poor health, psychological, and stress benefits; quantitative risks to respiratory health; and calculated the percentage of health outcomes resulting from indoor dampness and mold.

You can review the presentation slides by clicking here .