Climate change frontrunners in the Australian property sector

It is imperative that mitigation and adaptation actions to limit climate change impacts are integrated into current development and investment strategies. Actions that respond to climate change risk within the property sector are now evident, though the level of response is uneven across the sector. Twenty-four in-depth interviews were conducted with stakeholders from a cross section of organisations in the Australian property sector. Through these interviews climate change risk preparedness was assessed using Moser and Luers (2008) awareness, analytical capacity and actions framework. From this a new climate change preparedness framework was generated with themes and categories applicable to the property sector. These were then used to inform the characterisation of climate change ‘frontrunners’ in the property sector. The research identified that frontrunner characteristics in relation to Awareness include: sourcing reliable information, communicating this within their organisation, engaging in industry working groups and committees, and sharing information across firms. The Analytical capacity of the frontrunners comprised: a dedicated team who are able to interpret implications for the business, ability to garner attention to the issue from across the organisation and develop specific climate change models. Finally, the Actions of the frontrunners included both adaptation and mitigation actions; utilisation of rating tools, net zero carbon emission objectives; developing processes and policies to embed climate change into decision making; and conducting impact assessment across timescales and issues (physical, and workplace). In the absence of strong regulatory frameworks, the identification of frontrunners, their key characteristics and their strategies to tackle climate change risk provides a pathway for others in the sector to follow