Dutch Housing Associations Research Articles

Benchmarking energy performance: indicators and models for Dutch housing associations

Benchmarking is a method that can be used to measure progress and create awareness about the performance of organisations. Benchmarking the housing stock energy performance of Dutch housing associations can be used to measure and assess progress towards the decarbonisation of the housing stock. A new national climate agreement was signed in 2019, and in 2021 a new method to determine the theoretical energy performance of dwellings came into force in the Netherlands. To benchmark energy performance, a set of indicators is created that adequately represents the performance of Dutch housing associations according to the changed policies. A process involving key stakeholders is presented here to identify, assess and combine possible indicators. These were then integrated into four integrated models, which led to a final benchmark model. A model was chosen that consists of three indicators covering the energy performance of Dutch housing associations. The process and arguments that led to this final model are presented. While applicable within the Dutch context, the method and research results provide generalisable insights for the creation of energy performance benchmarks for building stocks. <em><strong>Practice relevance</strong></em> This paper provides both researchers and policymakers with a practical approach to monitor and benchmark the energy performance of dwellings owned by organisations. An analysis of the Dutch policy context is presented. Examples of possible benchmark indicators are described and evaluated. A method is created to assess indicators and it is shown how to integrate indicators in different benchmark models. The final model consists of three indicators: (1) the average theoretical primary fossil energy consumption (energy label value); (2) the difference between the theoretical heating demand (quality building envelope) and the theoretical maximum heating demand of dwellings; and (3) the average actual CO₂ emissions from gas consumption. Researchers and policymakers from other countries can adapt both the process and the final benchmark model to create similar benchmark models across housing stocks.

New Housing Concepts: Modular, Circular, Biobased, Reproducible, and Affordable

For a moment, it seemed that the architect had disappeared from the construction supply chain for sustainable and affordable housing provided by Dutch housing associations. Large contractors were making direct agreements with housing associations and wanted to scale up production with their housing factories. However, with the ‘So You Think You Can BUILD’ challenge, architects, consultancies, and contractors reinvented themselves within the construction supply chain and acquired a position as providers of circular building concepts. The aim of this challenge is to stimulate providers of homes to design and produce (in great numbers) affordable and sustainable houses. This not only scales up building production in empty fields but also within difficult and dense build urban areas. A whole new generation of Dutch architects, consultancies, and contractors working in collaboration are now intensively involved with circular and biobased residential buildings, innovative materials and production processes. They are managing to provide attractive products for housing associations and other clients. In the first part of 2021, ‘So You Think You Can BUILD’ challenged teams of designers, engineers and contractors to develop new concepts, with the three winners applying the principles of the ‘passive house’, which is modular and circular, as well as a smart building skin and smart core with open floor space in between.

Monitoring energy performance improvement: insights from Dutch housing association dwellings

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) enhanced the sustainable improvement of dwellings in the European Union. Member states formulated measurable goals to improve the housing stock, and monitoring systems were developed to give insights into the improvements. In the Netherlands, non-profit housing associations agreed to improve the quality of their housing stock to an average Dutch energy label B (energy index (EI NV) = 1.40) by 2020. Research assessing this progress over time is presented using an annual monitoring system based on 2.0 million energy performance calculations of 264 Dutch non-profit housing associations between 2017 and 2020. The assessment includes: a detailed description of the development of the state of the stock over time; the effect of changes to the stock (construction and demolition) and changes within the stock (different types of retrofit measures); and the different characteristics of non-profit housing associations. Insights from this research show which specific retrofit and other measures are adopted and have substantial impact over time. This provides a useful frame of reference for building stock analysis and accelerating the improvement of the building stock. It also creates a baseline of information for the future sustainable development of this particular stock. Practice relevance This research reveals which energy saving measures are most and least employed over time in Dutch non-profit housing associations sector. Large urban housing associations own a large share of the Dutch non-profit housing stock, and their dwellings have on average a lower energy rating. However, the improvement of their dwellings between 2017 and 2020 is higher than for smaller housing associations, which already have on average a higher energy rating. While the construction and demolition of dwellings contribute to 15.6% of the annual improvement, most of the improvement of the energy performance depends on retrofitting the existing stock. The trends are found to rely most on traditional measures (e.g. the installation of high-efficiency gas boilers and improved insulation). However, the rate of adding photovoltaic (PV) solar systems has increased rapidly in recent years, while futureproof systems (e.g. heat pumps and district heating) only have a steady adoption rate in this sector.

Improving Innovation Performance Through Employee-Driven Innovation Routes: The Role of HRM

Recent research on employee-driven innovation (EDI) has tried to explain how EDI emerges through innovation routes. However, there is little knowledge on which instruments can be used to support innovations through EDI routes to improve innovation performance of organizations. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to explore how EDI routes emerge and which instruments based on the abilities, motivation, and opportunities (AMO) framework can influence EDI routes towards enhanced innovation performance. In this qualitative research, an in-depth case study at a Dutch housing association is conducted based on 17 interviews from a multi-actor perspective, documents on innovative strategy, and observations. The results provide insights on how EDI routes emerge at the housing association through three phases consisting of activities that shape those phases, and illustrate which ability, motivational, and opportunity enhancing instruments play a role in the phases within the EDI routes.

Combining SDGs: The Need for a Responsive Approach to Manage Sustainability Paradoxes

Social purpose organizations are increasingly facing the need to address multiple sustainable development goals simultaneously. One way to address multiple sustainability demands is to seek synergies among them, while minimizing underling tensions between those demands. Paradox lenses are increasingly used to understand how organizations can manage conflicting –yet interrelated– sustainability goals. Via action research in the setting of a Dutch housing association, we analyse the process of strategy change while observing the societal response to this change. First, we identify the synergies and conflicts of the organization’s sustainable demands, which we categorize as good intentions and unintended consequences, respectively. Second, we define specific types of sustainability paradoxes that emerge while implementing a new sustainable goal. Our abductive study shows that a poor management of tensions hinders an organization’s proactive stance to solving sustainability challenges. We contribute to the literature on social purpose organizations by showing that a proactive approach to sustainability does not always lead to positive social impacts and suggesting that responsive approaches are to be preferred when combining sustainable development goals that show paradoxical relationships among each other.

The Freezing Effect of Sustainability Paradoxes and Conflicting Identities in Hybrid Organisations.

Hybrid organisations face competing demands, such as the need for financial viability versus the solving of environmental or social problems. Paradox theory is increasingly used to explore how organisations striving for sustainability manage these tensions. Via action research and an abductive approach in the setting of a Dutch housing association, we analyse how managers take decisions when faced with sustainability paradoxes in the process of strategy change. With this paper, we offer two main contributions. Firstly, we identify the types of paradoxes emerging while designing and implementing a new sustainable strategy. Secondly, we propose a theory on the freezing effects of sustainability paradoxes on the decision making process. We conclude that, although the understanding of sustainability paradoxes can activate strategic change, they can also feed inertia while freezing decision making due to the conflicting identities characterising hybrid organisations.

Implementing a new procurement strategy: the case of social housing associations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to address the barriers that Dutch housing associations encounter in implementing new procurement strategies.Design/methodology/approachSeveral aspects of purchasing, portfolio management, project delivery and supply management are discussed in relation to the changing role of housing associations as semi-public commissioning bodies in the Dutch construction industry, based on data derived from workshops with six Dutch housing associations.FindingsHousing associations are adapting their procurement strategy towards a more integrative and performance-based approach to supply management. Due to the complexity of implementing this process, housing associations struggle especially with moving beyond pilot projects, increasing the maturity levels throughout the organisation and aligning new policies with daily practices at a tactical and an operational level.Practical implicationsIncreased knowledge of change processes and seeing the potential of maturity models will be valuable for practitioners who are dealing with changes on the work floor.Social implicationsClient organisations are considered one of the key drivers of change in the construction industry. Insights into these particular organisational change processes contribute to the potential of industry reform.Originality/valueMost studies on collaboration and integration in the supply chain focus on the inter-organisational level or on the supply side, rather than the internal organisation of the client.

Organisational inertia for positive social change: Theory and Evidence from a Housing Association

In a time when the global economy continues to stutter, social justice and climate change mitigation simultaneously increase in urgency and complexity. In this context,existing organisations are put under pressure to display sustainable entrepreneurial behaviour,transforming their strategy to meet new social and environmental goals. This paper analyses the process of sustainable entrepreneurship in the context of existing hybrid organisations. We conducted extensive fieldwork at a Dutch housing association in transition. The case organisation set an ambitious climate mitigation target to be achieved by 2030 inducing a chain of organisational changes. At the same time, the strategy department is also dealing with a number of social challenges, among which a worrying increase of poverty, an ageing target group, and a rising refugees’ requests for housing. We offer a set of new propositions to underpin the mechanism fostering and contrasting the sustainable entrepreneurship process. One key finding is that some of the mechanisms that fuel organisational inertia in its conventional (negative)connotation, might be the ones enabling positive long-term social and environmental change.

Evaluating a self-proclaimed successful Dutch supply chain partnership

This study aims to reflect on experiences of professionals from a Dutch housing association and a contractor who perceive their relation as a successful supply chain partnership (SCP). Employing a narrative approach, this study shows the subgrouping in informal relations within and around the successful supply chain. The subgrouping shows examples of visible and hidden power dynamics. We conclude that, although the perception of success may have positive spin-offs, the members are not always positive about each other, SCP is applied to only a limited part of the client’s internal supply chain, SCP is applied in an arbitrary way that not always seems to be fair, and continuation of the success in the future is uncertain. The study provokes many practical interventions, but the main recommendation is to keep reflecting on informal relations to address some of the social issues.

Studying intra-organizational dynamics in implementing supply chain partnering

This study aims at uncovering intra-organizational dynamics in implementing supply chain partnering. Narrative techniques are used in a qualitative case study in a Dutch housing association. This study shows how project leaders of a Dutch Housing Association perceive relationships in the internal supply chain and the strategies that they develop to cope with these relationships. Furthermore, it is argued that key values of SCP as understood by the project leaders - such as sharing responsibilities and addressing feedback towards each other openly - are not applied in intraorganizational relationships.

Work floor experiences of construction partnering in the Netherlands

This research aims at understanding daily work floor experiences of project leaders of Dutch housing associations who try to apply the principles of SCP. By comparing three cases it was found that: 1) despite the attention, engagement, and effort put into applying the principles of SCP, there are no indications that this lead to fundamental and structural improvement of intra- and inter-organizational collaborations. 2) intra-organizational relationships are just as important as inter-organizational relationships when it comes to implementing principles of SCP. 3) integrative activities are conducted and perceived as not rational, chaotic, contradictory, not finished and/or not followed up. Although the results may provoke practical managerial interventions, we recommend not to come to that kind of managerial interventions too quickly. Instead, we recommend getting actively involved in complex responsive processes that constitute the forming of SCP. In this way, cooperating with supply chain partners becomes a matter of a dynamic and personal process of development, rather than a managerial problem that is abstracted from daily work practice.

Conclusions

This research aimed to describe work floor experiences of project leaders who work for Dutch housing associations and who attempt to apply principles of SCP. Reason to do this, was that current research about SCP does not provide insight in what goes on at the work floor. This insight is necessary, because supply chain partnering is formed by ongoing complex responsive processes of interaction between professionals in their daily work life. To intervene effectively and to improve performances of collaboration, work floor experiences were studied. This research consists of a literature review, three case studies, and an overarching study in which the insights that are gained in the three case studies are synthesized.

Implementing supply chain partnering in the construction industry

Although much research has been conducted about advantages and challenges for supply chain partnering (SCP) in the construction sector, focus has been mostly on formal aspects of implementation within organizations. Understanding social aspects, however, might be just as crucial to implementation of SCP as understanding managerial and intraorganizational dynamics. Therefore, this paper presents the results of a study in which a work floor professional together with a researcher tried to contribute to the implementation of SCP within the maintenance and refurbishment processes of a Dutch housing association. The results showed that stakeholders could not come to shared understanding of strategic needs, and that that pattern influences and was influenced by social aspects such as leadership and trust, which confirms the importance of explicit attention for social interactions at work floor level for successful implementation of supply chain partnering.

The Financialization of A Social Housing Provider

AbstractWhy does a social housing provider bet on interest rate fluctuations? This article presents a case study of the financialization of both housing and the state. Social housing in the Netherlands is provided by non‐profit housing associations that have since 1989 been set apart from the state. Many associations started developing housing for profit, borrowing on global capital markets or buying derivatives. Whereas other semi‐public institutions moved into the world of finance due to financial constraints, housing associations did so to capitalize on the possibilities offered by their asset‐rich portfolios. Vestia, the largest of them all, is an extreme––but not exceptional––case of what can happen when public goals are left to be realized by inadequately supervised and poorly managed private organizations. As a result of gambling on derivatives, Vestia had to be bailed out to the tune of over 2 billion euros. To recoup the losses, housing was sold off and rents were raised. Almost half of Dutch housing associations used derivatives, although most refrained from using them purely speculatively. The changes in the housing sector that led to its financialization cannot be separated from the wider financialization of the state.

Work Floor Experiences of Supply Chain Partnering in the Dutch Housing Sector

Work Floor Experiences of Supply Chain Partnering in the Dutch Housing Sector

Implementing supply chain partnering in the construction industry: Work floor experiences within a Dutch housing association

Although much research has been conducted about advantages and challenges for supply chain partnering (SCP) in the construction sector, focus has been mostly on formal aspects of implementation within organizations. Understanding social aspects, however, might be just as crucial to implementation of SCP as understanding managerial and intraorganizational dynamics. Therefore, this paper presents the results of a study in which a work floor professional together with a researcher tried to contribute to the implementation of SCP within the maintenance and refurbishment processes of a Dutch housing association. The results showed that stakeholders could not come to shared understanding of strategic needs, and that that pattern influences and was influenced by social aspects such as leadership and trust, which confirms the importance of explicit attention for social interactions at work floor level for successful implementation of supply chain partnering.

Evaluating a self-proclaimed successful Dutch supply chain partnership

This study aims to reflect on experiences of professionals from a Dutch housing association and a contractor who perceive their relation as a successful supply chain partnership (SCP). Employing a narrative approach, this study shows the subgrouping in informal relations within and around the successful supply chain. The subgrouping shows examples of visible and hidden power dynamics. We conclude that, although the perception of success may have positive spin-offs, the members are not always positive about each other, SCP is applied to only a limited part of the client’s internal supply chain, SCP is applied in an arbitrary way that not always seems to be fair, and continuation of the success in the future is uncertain. The study provokes many practical interventions, but the main recommendation is to keep reflecting on informal relations to address some of the social issues.

Work floor experiences of construction partnering in the Netherlands: Comparison of three case studies

This research aims at understanding daily work floor experiences of project leaders of Dutch housing associations who try to apply the principles of SCP. By comparing three cases it was found that: 1) despite the attention, engagement, and effort put into applying the principles of SCP, there are no indications that this lead to fundamental and structural improvement of intra- and inter-organizational collaborations. 2) intra-organizational relationships are just as important as inter-organizational relationships when it comes to implementing principles of SCP. 3) integrative activities are conducted and perceived as not rational, chaotic, contradictory, not finished and/or not followed up. Although the results may provoke practical managerial interventions, we recommend not to come to that kind of managerial interventions too quickly. Instead, we recommend getting actively involved in complex responsive processes that constitute the forming of SCP. In this way, cooperating with supply chain partners becomes a matter of a dynamic and personal process of development, rather than a managerial problem that is abstracted from daily work practice.

Institutional ‘lock-out’ towards local self-governance? Environmental justice and sustainable transformations in Dutch social housing neighbourhoods

In their efforts to improve social housing neighbourhoods, Dutch housing associations attempt to encourage tenants to take a more active role. Generally speaking, bottom-up initiatives and participatory approaches have become popular among Dutch policy-makers as ways to achieve sustainable energy goals. While the rise of local energy cooperatives seems to support this view, we also see that particularly in deprived neighbourhoods, there is no bottom-up activity, nor will it occur without external support. This paper thus examines a case of an externally initiated programme in a Dutch social housing neighbourhood, aiming to place tenants’ needs at the centre. Applying an environmental justice framework, we address both the historical-institutional legacies and the tenants’ positions, showing how institutional pressures built up over time have resulted in a diluting of the programme into a top-down technology-pushed approach. The relevance goes beyond this case: without ensuring the quality of the participation, institutional lock-ins can produce perverse outcomes, with the programme failing to achieve its (energy-efficiency) goals while the intended beneficiaries lose out. As a counterweight, an active process of capacity building is proposed, using an environmental justice approach to examine the conditions for local self-governance and how to address these in a participatory intervention.

Studying intra-organizational dynamics in implementing supply chain partnering: a case study about work floor experiences in a Dutch housing association

This study aims at uncovering intra-organizational dynamics in implementing supply chain partnering. Narrative techniques are used in a qualitative case study in a Dutch housing association. This study shows how project leaders of a Dutch housing association perceive relationships in the internal supply chain and the strategies that they develop to cope with these relationships. Furthermore, it is argued that key values of SCP as understood by the project leaders – such as sharing responsibilities and addressing feedback towards each other openly – are not applied in intra-organizational relationships.