1 Confirm the need for action
By participating in the Community Housing Climate Action Network (CHCAN), member organisations have recognised the need to understand the risks climate change poses to community housing residents and CHPs and what to do about these risks. However, inside the day-to-day running of organisations focused on affordable housing provision this need may not be seen as urgent or as a CHP’s responsibility. Similarly, when managing limited financial resources, it can be hard to prioritise long-term risk management compared to immediate accommodation needs. However, climate change now presents a material risk to many organisations and communities and addressing the risks is increasing regarded as a fiduciary responsibility for boards and executive management.
How to build the case for action:
It is crucial to build the case for action internally before embarking on this roadmap of action and to engage with your residents to communicate that this work is beginning. It is also a good opportunity to communicate likely benefits and possible short-term disruptions.
- Internal Engagement Process
- External Engagement Process
- Understand Climate Risks
- Undertake a Climate Change Risk Assessment
- Integrate Climate Risk into the Corporate Risk Management Framework
- Review Climate Risk and Apadtion Plans Regularly
- Integrate Climate Risk into Governance Structures
Climate change risks can be broken down into physical risks, such as extreme heat, flooding and bushfires, and transition risks associated with the world transitioning to a lower carbon economy such as policy, legal and insurance changes plus reputational risks. Transition risks also include your organisation’s contributions to human-induced climate change and the need for the mitigation of these emissions.
It is crucial to develop a sound understanding of which risks are likely to impact your CHP and your residents so that you can adapt to the changes and manage the risks. Ensuring leadership buy-in (board and executive) is also vital so that the CHP can allocate sufficient resources and anticipate changes to governance and management.
Tools & Resources
The best way to understand climate change risks and opportunities for your CHO is to conduct a climate change risk assessment. This process applies a conventional risk management framework to identify and analyse climate risks in your region for your asset portfolio and for your community in the short- to mid-term (2020-39) and long-term (2060-70).
The risk assessment process will also identify adaptation actions and responsibilities in a staged manner over an appropriate time relative to the risks.
The process of undertaking the risk assessment is a very good way to engage relevant internal stakeholders as they become involved in identifying and understanding the risks as well as the actions needed to adapt and mitigate the risks. This is also a good time to build understating of the climate and social benefits that result from energy and thermal efficiency. It may be easiest to engage a specialist to undertake the risk assessment and adaptation plan with you.
The tools and resources below can help you get started. The CHIA NSW Climate Change Risk Assessment tables as an example output from a climate change risk assessment
Tools & Resources
Climate change risks (both physical and transition) should then become standing items in your CHO’s risk management framework with “High” and “Extreme” rated risks noted for both the executive and board attention.
Like any management plan or system, climate risk and adaptation management should be updated regularly. Best practice suggests every five years, unless a major event (climate hazard or regulatory change, or development in the science) triggers an earlier review. Active management of the actions and those responsible for them should become part of operational planning and staff performance management.
Recognising that climate change can pose a material risk to the CHO, the board should consider establishing a climate risk subcommittee, or at least including climate change into the remit of the existing risk committee if there is one. Likewise, the executive management team should ensure that an executive takes accountability for the active management of climate risks and opportunities.
Just as internal stakeholders will need to understand why action is needed, there are several groups of external stakeholders, most importantly your tenants, who will need to be engaged.
Community housing tenants can be some of the most vulnerable members of the community and are likely to feel the impacts of climate change hazards such as extreme heat more acutely than the general population. Tenants are also more likely to experience energy poverty and cost of living constraints than the broader community and so stand to gain from adaptation actions that improve thermal performance and energy efficiency. However, retrofitting dwellings may at times be intrusive, so it is important to communicate early that works may be coming to build trust and minimise disruption.
Changing the way tenants use appliances and consume energy can also result in reduced energy consumption and carbon emissions, and listening to what they need and want and an element of ‘behavioural change’ can also be part of a program of actions.
Most CHOs have established community teams with existing relationships and communication channels with tenants. Engagement on climate change will be a natural extension to this.
Some external suppliers will also have to be made aware of the coming program of climate change actions, especially maintenance providers and trades that replace appliances and have scope to improve energy and thermal performance of dwellings.
Tools & Resources
Relevant resources will be added as they are created or discovered.
Contact CHIA to join CHCAN or to share ideas on what tools and resources would be useful.