Trees, other plants, the weather and climate are central actors influencing urban health, wellbeing and equity, the thermal performance of housing and the adaptive capacities of householders to respond to extreme weather. Yet the environmental elements shaping energy vulnerability, adaptive practice and retrofit remain overlooked as retrofit research and practice has focused on smart low carbon technologies, building envelopes and, more recently, the human social relations and practices that shape energy demand.
Trees, other plants, the weather and climate are central actors influencing urban health, wellbeing and equity, the thermal performance of housing and the adaptive capacities of householders to respond to extreme weather. Yet the environmental elements shaping energy vulnerability, adaptive practice and retrofit remain overlooked as retrofit research and practice has focused on smart low carbon technologies, building envelopes and, more recently, the human social relations and practices that shape energy demand.
This project investigates how placing trees and plants, climate and heat, more firmly into discussions of household retrofit and fuel poverty might inform policy and practice. It will outline the ways these missing “natures” figure in experiences and practices of household retrofit to assist those making decisions around retrofit policy and program provision.
The project will contribute to retrofit governance by showing how plants, weather and outdoor spaces are central to discussions of household retrofit and fuel poverty.
This project is part of the ARC Linkage Household Energy Efficiency Transitions Project, and funded by the Fuel Poverty Research Network.
Regenerative Environments and Climate Action brings together our expertise in understanding cities as integral to environmental justice, the need for urgent climate action, improving ecological processes, and connections with more-than-human worlds.
RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.
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