Allianz Australia has teamed up with the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) to launch a new tool to make home improvements sustainable.
Allianz's latest research found that 3.5 million Australian homeowners are considering renovating their home in the next six months.
However, 24% of the respondents with a renovation plan did not consider making their home more sustainable. Nearly half (46%) of the respondents did not know where to start when it comes to making renovations sustainable, while 86% claimed there were barriers stopping them from making their home sustainable.
Of those who claimed they faced barriers to sustainable improvements, 60% identified associated high costs as a main barrier, and 31% identified complexity. Some of the respondents said making their home more sustainable felt like “a very large task” (51%) and were unsure of the benefits of sustainable improvements (27%).
Allian's research found an appetite for change, with the respondents admitting they would consider sustainable options if it increased the value of their home (46%), if they understood the benefits for them and their family (37%) or the environment (34%), or if they received more information on how to make changes in their home (34%).
In response to the knowledge gap, Allianz teamed up with GBCA to launch Green Specs – an online tool to help Australians make their blueprints sustainable and break down technical information in a newly released guide.
Developed by GBCA, the guide is a technical manual and checklist for making sustainable improvements aimed at industry professionals. Meanwhile, Green Specs is a virtual representation of the guide that enables Australians to explore the rooms of a digital floor plan and learn positive, healthy, and resilient ways to make their home more sustainable.
“The increasing frequency and severity of weather events makes it more important than ever to consider sustainable and resilient elements in our homes. The insurance industry has an important role to play in supporting our customers and the community to transition to net zero. In bringing Green Specs to life, our aim is to highlight ways to make homes more sustainable – from small improvements through to large renovations,” said Sema Whittle, general manager of sustainability at Allianz.
Allianz also recently released its comprehensive net-zero transition plan.
