2 Establish a baseline
Once the risks have been identified and the need for action confirmed, the next step is to develop a baseline of the building stock to understand what you’ve got, what can be done to improve its performance and how to prioritise these actions. This is made more complex by the mixed ownership structure of many CHP portfolios and the lack of existing data sets.
This will take time but need not be exhaustive before actions to improve performance can be started. Archetypes and proxy data can be used where actual data is not known or would be prohibitively expensive. However, having a comprehensive database of your building stock will bring management advantages beyond climate change risk management, such as capital and insurance management.
- Measure the baseline housing conditions
- Estimate your emissions profile
- Set benchmarks for housing performance and emissions
- Internal knowledge and skills & external resources
This is essentially a stock take of the dwellings you own and manage including dwelling address, building type (unit, townhouse, semi-detached, detached), number of rooms, building materials, current energy rating (if known), level of insulation, type of glazing, type of heating, cooling, hot water, energy rating of appliance (washing machine, dryer, dishwasher), if solar is installed onsite.
This combination of data will contribute to calculating an energy performance benchmark, which may become mandatory under forthcoming disclosures requirements.
ACH is investigating if the RapidRate tool developed by CSIRO could be used by CHPs
Tools & Resources
Undertake an assessment of your emission profile as the first step to help manage the transition risks associated with your CHO’s emission profile. Data from the baseline housing conditions will contribute to this. Emissions data will become an important component of your ESG reporting and like all areas of management – ‘you can’t manage what you don’t measure’. Refer to the 2023 CHIA ESG Reporting Standard to assist.
Such an assessment should cover the following:
- Scope 1 – Direct emissions from owned or controlled sources, ie fuels burnt in your vehicles.
- Scope 2 – Indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy, ie emissions from electricity
- Scope 3 – All indirect emissions (not included in scope 2) that occur in the value chain of your CHO, such as the energy consumption of your tenants and embodied carbon in building materials for renovations and new construction.
Like the climate risk assessment, it may be easiest to engage a specialist consultant to undertake the emission profile for you. A common benefit of doing the emission calculations is the ability to then go on and develop a Marginal Abatement Cost Curve, which assesses the bang for buck of the various emission reduction options for your organisation. This helps prioritise your emission reduction actions making sure that you know which actions will have the greatest impact for the least cost per tonne of emissions abated.
Tools & Resources
- National Greenhouse Gas Account factors can be used to calculate your Scope 1, 2 and some Scope 3 emissions.
- Basic emissions calculator for CHOs
- Carbon Neutral, free online calculator
- Sumday, free 30 day trial, subscription based.
- Net Nada, SME focussed with an annual fee
Once the existing benchmarks are known, the next step is to set the minimum requirements to address climate risk and emission reductions and the timeframe over which you want to meet these new benchmarks.
As well as quantifying energy savings and retrofit costs, this process can help quantify cost of living savings, reducing rent stress and quantifying increased capacity to pay rent. Reference to third-party studies can also identify physical and mental health benefits of a more thermally comfortable home.
Tools & Resources
- NatHERs 7 star + minimum standard for new builds and Accu Rate for new designs.
- The Policy and Regulations Summary may help identify minimum standards.
- Target emissions reductions can be set aligned with Science-Based Targets initiative and CRREM for your housing portfolio.
Understanding your CHOs existing skills and capacity compared to those needed to achieve the designed minimum performance can help in the design of your CHOs own roadmap. It may be necessary to upskill existing staff through training or to recruit additional expertise, or to engage external resources such as consultants, carbon accountants, architects, engineers etc for specific tasks.
These are new challenges for CHOs but you are not alone in tackling them. Remember to tap into the CHCAN network of fellow CHOs that have all indicated a willingness to share knowledge and pool resources.