Current Activity

Electricity Retailers Allow retrofits repayments through energy savings on bills Communications with customers

Banks Finance for retrofits – through home loans or separate loans Financial assessments

Superannuation Finance loans

Industry Associations Inform program design and roll out Aligned messaging to government for standards etc

Manufacturers Scale up production as required by retrofit demand Aligned messaging on benefits of retrofit

Retrofit service providers (incl assessors) Simplify experience for homeowners Provide advice

Installers / builders Engage homeowners through broader renovation discussions Communicate benefits

Auditors Assess retrofit requirements Communications with energy users Check quality of installations

Homeowner –occupiers Self-assessment? Decide finance arrangement for their property Fund some upgrades

Homeowner – landlords Fund some upgrades Decide finance arrangement for their property

Tenants Pressure landlords and property managers for energy efficiency upgrades through rental property preferences

Social Housing providers Registered Training Organisations Universities Support piloting of model retrofits where funding is available

Training for assessors, auditors, and installers

Monitoring and evaluation Training and course design

4.7.1 Recommendations

• Leverage the capabilities and capacities of key stakeholders to support ongoing work to develop and deliver a large scale retrofit program • Understand and detail the relationships and agreements required to underpin effective collaboration for delivery of a large-scale home retrofit scheme

Current Activity

The Trajectory for Low Energy Buildings and its Addendum (the Trajectory)1, agreed by state, territory, and Commonwealth Energy Ministers in 2019, is a national plan that set a trajectory towards zero energy (and carbon) ready buildings for Australia. The Trajectory outlines a suite of initiatives to improve the energy efficiency of Australia’s buildings and included a measure to: Establish a national framework for energy efficiency disclosure, building on existing jurisdictional work, including the National Collaborative Approach to Residential Building Ratings and Disclosure – Principles, which outlines the policy parameters for adaptation and implementation by jurisdictions, subject to a jurisdiction regulatory impact statement. Disclosure of a home’s energy efficiency performance at the point of sale can ensure buyers have relevant information to make more informed choices. This information may encourage improvements by either the seller or buyer. As a recommendation from the Trajectory, a National Framework for Disclosure of Residential Energy Efficiency Information (the Framework) is being prepared. This will build upon established disclosure markets already present in Australia, including the ACT Mandatory disclosure and the voluntary National Scorecard Program. Other active residential building measures listed in the Trajectory that support and/or enable the disclosure of residential building energy efficiency information are: • Expansion of NatHERS to provide whole of home ratings and whole of home assessments for existing homes • National Framework for Minimum Rental Requirements • Updated minimum energy efficiency provisions in National Construction Code (NCC) 2022. Through the IRG workshops and interviews, and via desktop research, the current activities related to housing energy efficiency in Australia have been identified. Appendix C Current Relevant Activity in Australia, provides the full detail of the current complementary activities that are underway in Australia. The assessment of this activity shows that there is currently no national, or regional largescale home retrofit scheme. It also highlights a private sector gap where there is growing demand from homeowners and as well as interest in offering green finance. The only home retrofit schemes that are currently active are state government run programs that are engaged with industry delivery partners and accredited suppliers and providers. They are mostly targeted at low-income households and small in scale. However, some aspects of these schemes show precedence for a model that could enable a national retrofit market that could be managed state by state. For example, the Energy Upgrade Finance (EUF) extension to Victorian residential building owners provides

1 https://energyministers.gov.au/publications/trajectory-low-energy-buildings