So, 8 supplementary recommendations have been distilled from the suggestions provided by the questionnaire respondents. The following text identifies each recommendation and provides a supporting rationale for each recommendation.
Supplementary Recommendation 1:
Professional and other non-government bodies
such as Strata Community Australia
and Green Strata to develop a list of
experienced consultants and/or recommended experts who can be engaged to advise
owner committees that wish to undertake climate change building adaptation
planning and work.
Since owners in
S&CT buildings, strata managers and also resident managers are unlikely to
have particular climate change building adaptation expertise, they will need
advice and guidance. If seeking climate change advice, these key stakeholders
are likely to seek information from experts in the field. This is particularly
so, given that climate change advice represents a relatively new expert
discipline. Since the expertise is developing as both a discrete discipline and
also part of more general building technology disciplines, a dual expertise
identification approach should be taken.
Comments made by a
representative of Green Cross Australia
suggest that relative to the potential demand for this type of advice by
S&CT buildings, there is likely to be a shortage of experienced people
available at the time of preparing this report. We see this factor as providing
additional support for this recommendation, as increased visibility given to
experts in the field would likely result in more professionals seeking to
develop a climate change S&CT building adaptation expertise. This signifies
that in the early years in particular, the list would need to be updated
regularly.
In addition to
providing details of appropriate consultants and experts, the list could also
provide information on the kind of experience advisors should have and also the
types of questions that S&CT building committees and managers could ask
potential advisors.
Supplementary Recommendation 2:
Government (national, state and/or local)
and private sector organisations with vested interests (like insurers and
lenders) to subsidise climate change adaptation works on one or more typical
strata title buildings in order to provide a model of the type of climate
change adaptation works that can be undertaken and to showcase the benefits.
Since awareness
levels about climate change, climate change impacts, appropriate adaptation
works and the resultant benefits appear to be low amongst strata and community
title stakeholders, information and examples to help them understand what
adaptation works can be undertaken are particularly important. The existence of examples of what
climate change adaptation works can be achieved would be a valuable resource
that could be drawn upon by any climate change adaptation champions working or
living in S&CT buildings.
It is notable that
the creation of model examples of S&CT building actions and options have
already been pursued by government in connection with ecologically sustainable
development and other environmentally sustainable initiatives.
Supplementary Recommendation 3:
Resident manager and strata manager
contracts to include provisions covering the type and extent of their
responsibilities and authorities in the event of an emergency incident.
Enquiries made by
the research team suggest that it is rare for current strata manager and
resident manager contracts to contemplate weather emergencies. The absence of
such provisions creates unnecessary uncertainty with respect to who is
responsible for what actions, should such an emergency event occur. Emergency
event management can be expected to proceed more smoothly and in a more
expeditious manner should clarification be given to the obligations of strata
managers and resident managers, with specifications given with respect to what
actions they should and should not take. If such matters are contracted for, a
provision should also be made for a manager receiving appropriate remuneration
for emergency event responsibilities undertaken.
Developing a set of
pro-forma provisions for strata manager and resident manager contracts is
recommended. Such provisions could then be adopted or modified to suit
individual S&CT buildings, strata manager and resident manager situations.
Such provisions should include mechanisms that would allow changes to be made
to some of the more specific details of the emergency actions, in light of
evolving technologies and knowledge.
Supplementary Recommendation 4:
Insurers should base insurance risk
assessment on a building’s specific characteristics, not just its geographical
location. Basing insurance premiums on a building’s specific characteristics,
which incorporate climate change resilience, will provide unit owners with an
incentive to invest in adaptation to improve a building’s climate change
resilience.
Since insurance
premiums are not being based (in most cases) on specific S&CT buildings’
resilience, there is a diminished incentive for owners to invest in improving
S&CT buildings’ resilience.
Requiring more building specific risk assessment by insurers would
result in a fairer building resilience assessment, more appropriate and
equitable premium allocations, as well as greater clarity for S&CT building
owners with respect to how investment in building adaptation can result in
decreased insurance premiums. Ideally, any building resilience investments and
climate change adaptation works that reduce insurance premiums should have
universal insurance sector approval, so that S&CT buildings that have
undertaken such works would have the benefits recognised in premiums quoted,
regardless of the insurance provider.
Challenges
associated with implementing this recommendation include identifying the
infrastructure characteristics that affect building resilience from an insurance
risk perspective, ensuring that adaptations are universally recognised by
insurers and the additional costs incurred by insurers in connection with
conducting building specific insurance assessments.
The development of
any new risk assessment guidelines should be made in
conjunction with the work of the Australian
Resilience Taskforce, which is an
initiative of the Insurance Council of Australia that is intended to
provide a platform for collaboration, and alignment across government, industry
and non-government organizations to enable increased resilience in Australian
communities (www.buildingresilience.org.au).
Supplementary Recommendation 5:
Insurance companies to provide strata title
schemes with a policy option to insure for infrastructure upgrades, in the
event of a claim, not simply for the cost of replacement. Such upgrades could
be conducted in a manner consistent with engineering greater building climate
change resilience.
Currently, ‘like
for like’ replacement policies for S&CT buildings and the strata and
community title law obligations to ‘keep in good and serviceable repair’
signify that S&CT buildings will almost invariably install equivalent
replacement structures following weather damage. So, an opportunity for
improvement and engineering better climate change resilience is lost.
A challenge in
implementing this recommendation would likely stem from an apparent widely held
insurance industry culture that is opposed to ‘betterment’. A second problem in
implementing this recommendation concerns how ‘betterment’ could be handled in
a S&CT building insurance policy. One way of dealing with this issue could
be to include a policy clause that allows replacement of infrastructure with
infrastructure that is (say) up to 25% more expensive than a ‘like for like’
replacement.
Supplementary Recommendation 6:
Government and industry based training
courses directed to strata title unit owners, committee members, managers and
other stakeholders to include a ‘prepare your strata title building for climate
change’ component.
As part of a wider
effort to promote strata and community title stakeholder education, training on
climate change issues and challenges should be made available to all key
stakeholders. Since the knowledge in question is largely universal to all
stakeholders, a generic training module that is appropriate for owners,
committee members, strata managers and resident managers could be developed.
Supplementary Recommendation 7:
A pro forma disaster management plan or
plans for strata title communities should be developed by government and/or
non-government bodies and made available on a government and privately
maintained “prepare your strata title building for climate change” website.
There are already
many resources concerning weather emergencies and other disasters, but in only
very limited situations do S&CT buildings adopt them. It appears that even when adopted in
the S&CT building context, they are for limited kinds of emergencies.
Yet much of the
information and knowledge is universally applicable. So, developing pro-forma
disaster and emergency management plans that can simply be adopted or modified
to suit individual S&CT buildings’ needs is recommended. Similarly,
associated information for owners, residents and other stakeholders can be
prepared to inform them of possible plans and important details.
It is notable that Green Cross Australia’s www.hardenup.org
website contains pro forma information for tenants about extreme weather
preparedness. This was developed in conjunction with the Residential Tenancies Authority. This resource would provide valuable input to the design of
any government initiated pro forma disaster management plan that is tailored to
the S&CT context.
Supplementary Recommendation 8:
As part of the building development and
construction approval process, require that an evacuation plan and general
disaster management plan be included in a scheme’s original documentation
prepared by developers.
Associated to the
recommendation about pro forma disaster management plans is this recommendation
that developers should prepare and include such plans as part of the original
documents for S&CT buildings. Implementation of this recommendation would
result in all new S&CT buildings having such a plan and the plan should be
made readily available to all owners and residents. If pro forma plans are available (as per the previous
recommendation) then developers could simply adapt them to the particular needs
of each building that they develop. This practice would also focus developer
attention on climate change and weather emergencies before S&CT buildings
are completed. Over time, this can be expected to influence the design of
S&CT buildings in a manner consistent with better preparedness for climate
change.
