Introduction

Without specific action and incentives for existing residential building stock, continued emissions from buildings will make achievement of the national carbon reduction goal very difficult because current action accounts for less than 2% of annual building stock and relying on new-building minimum regulations will make the retro-fit process unnecessarily long.
Furthermore, if the existing building stock is not given explicit attention through unique policy interventions and incentives, the majority of Australians may never experience the cost and amenity benefits of more sustainable buildings including: improved productivity, lower operating and maintenance costs, higher quality of life, and reduced human health issues.

Aim

• To improve the sustainability of the existing building stock and provide cost and amenity benefits to all Australians.

Principles

• Significantly reducing energy use in the residential setting will have a flow on effect to other areas of consumption such as business as residents begin to understand more fully how their behaviour influences energy consumption.
• Government incentives are only available after an appropriate assessment is conducted to identify and quantify the problem
• Retro-fit improvements to a house’s sustainability rating should be ‘hard-wired’ by not allowing a house to be sold at a lower star rating than it was purchased or built.
• The benefits of retro-fit improvements need to be benchmarked to demonstrate the improvements achieved

Policy solutions

• The use of mandatory disclosure at the point of lease or sale to provide greater information to consumers about actual building performance, rather than a benchmarked comparison (ie the use of a NABERS – or equivalent – rather than NatHERS rating)
• A compulsory green audit should be the first step to securing other Federal (And State) Government support measures in relation to energy efficiency, water efficiency and the installation of other sustainability measures.
• Major renovations in households that require Local Council approval (e.g. $100k+) should also require a NatHERS assessment report.
• Development of a nationally consistent ‘white certificate’ scheme to create incentives for business to aggregate small and inefficiency energy efficiency opportunities
• Greater use of innovative financing models to make it easier for households to implement changes recommended by qualified assessors

Action

• The introduction of a nationally consistent mandatory disclosure system to provide greater information to consumers and encourage improvements to a house’s sustainability
• Introduction of a compulsory green audit before business or consumers can access government incentives.
• Development of a nationally consistent ‘white certificate’ scheme to create incentives for business to aggregate small and inefficiency energy efficiency opportunities

Key messages

• 'We have over eight million dwellings to measure and offer advice on how to consume less"
• "This is the big job that must be done in Australia"
• "If we don’t tackle this problem we are just shouting into the wind on residential energy efficiency"
• "Reducing power use significantly in a lot of homes helps us to reduce the overall power generation we need"
• "If we don’t address efficiency homes will have to move to 100% renewable to meet targets"
• "There should be no intervention without an assessment"
• "This helps to empower the household"
• "It is about putting the power in the hands of the householder to address future power shocks"
• "Just like when you visit your local doctor- an assessment looks at the health of your home in terms of its efficiency and offers solutions to its problems"

Related articles

• For unformation on how to interpret the policy objectives and definition of terms, see How are the policy objectives structured?
• Read the McMansions case study to learn how the policy objectives are used to define position positions

Related policy statements and submissions

• Residential Building Mandatory Disclosure submission

Related medial releases

• ABSA has say on proposed residential building mandatory disclosure
• ABSA urges households to go beyond Earth Hour