As one of Australia's leading insurance companies, Suncorp knows only too well about the devastating effects of climate change. And as our climate continues to change, current building codes will continue to fail.

In 2021, Suncorp launched 'One House To Save Many'. A world-first innovation to design and scientifically test a house that could withstand bushfires, floods and cyclones.

In 2022, ‘Resilience Rd’ took the learnings and techniques from ‘One House’, and scaled them to real homes on a real street in Rockhampton, one of Queensland’s most vulnerable regions.

The effects of climate change continue to make Queensland - a state in north east Australia - more susceptible to extreme weather events. And as the weather events increase, the cost of insurance skyrockets. And in some cases, entire towns are uninsurable. So, over the last few years, Suncorp Insurance has shifted its strategy from ‘recovery’ to ‘resilience’. Because if people make their homes stronger in the face of extreme weather, it reduces claims, displacement and trauma.

‘Resilience Rd’ applies the learnings and techniques from ‘One House to Save Many’, which was designed and scientifically tested by the CSIRO (Australia’s science agency), James Cook University and Room 11 Architects. Each home on ‘Resiellice Rd’ was analysed and then the resilience work was carried out by ABC building Group.

We had to work hand-in-hand with the local council to expedite approvals, which they were more than happy to do.

Suncorp's mission is to 'Put Australia on the road to Resilience', so we took one of Australia's most vulnerable streets and made it one of the strongest. We analysed each home on a disaster-prone street in Queensland, and applied the scientific learnings and techniques from 'One House to Save Many' to make each home more resilient to bushfires, floods and cyclones.

‘Resilience Rd’ was designed to teach Australians the value of resilience and how to make their homes stronger in the face of increasing extreme weather. And to continue to position Suncorp as an industry leader in resilience.

August 2019 - ‘One House to Save Many’ was first proposed as an idea to Suncorp.

December 2019 - Alongside Suncorp’s expertise in insurance, we brought a number of partners. Including ‘Room 11 Architects’, an award-winning team known for sustainable architecture. And ‘James Cook University’, experts in flood and cyclone resilience. ‘The CSIRO’ (Australia’s National Science Agency) were brought on board as bushfire experts.

Jan 2020 - Dec 2020 - Testing and design refinement of ‘One House’ prototype.

April 2021 - Launch of ‘One House’ prototype to the public.

June 2021 - ‘Resilience Rd’ was agreed upon as a follow up initiative.

July 2021 - Rockhampton was agreed upon as a destination and ‘Bowen St’ was identified as the street.

Aug 2021 - Sep 2021 - Homes were analysed to find their weak points. The solutions were then designed by the engineers based on scientific learnings, and budgets were agreed to.

Oct 2021 - Jan 2021 - Building works were undertaken on ‘Resilience Rd’ and documented in film.

February 2022 - Launch of ‘Resilience Rd’ to the public. Including PR, TV, online hub, digital, social and media partnerships.

Each house on ‘Resilience Rd’ was analysed to find its weaknesses. Some homes were more susceptible to storms, and others were more susceptible to floods or bushfires. The engineers then used the learnings from the ‘One House’ prototype to apply the most appropriate resilient features, including:

* For cyclone and bushfire resilience, steel mesh screens were used. Which have the dual purpose of protecting against wind-blown debris as well as ember attack. This was a new use of steel mesh screens, that were originally designed for use on doors to to stop break ins.

* For flood, standard drywall/plasterboard was replaced by fibre cement, to ensure that in the event of a flood, it could simply be washed and screwed back on. Powerpoints were also raised and weather seals added.

* For high winds, cyclone roof fixings were installed in the roofs, to ensure that the wind couldn’t peel back the roof.

Each innovative solution was costed up to be affordable with easily sourced materials, rather than an unattainable, costly design.

CAMPAIGN RESULTS:

Reached 95% of Queenslanders in the first 4 weeks of launch.

54,000+ unique website visitors.

33 million impressions.

BUSINESS IMPACT:

Suncorp are now rewarding customers for building resilience into their homes with industry leading products.

+75% increase in home policy growth (a YOY record).

Maintained leadership position in home awareness.

Grown consideration position to #2.

+6.2% increase in new policies (Record quarter performance)

CULTURAL IMPACT:

Covered by several news outlets including multiple live crosses from ‘The Today Show’.

Partnered with Australia's most popular TV show - ‘The Block’ - embedding resilience into the public discourse. The home renovation show rewarded participants for adding resilience to their builds.

The city of Rockhampton officially co-named the street Resilience Road.

Led by Suncorp, the Insurance Council of Australia has since launched Project Resilience, which aims to embed resilience into the National Construction Code by 2025.

Australians are obsessed with their homes and renovating them. There are multiple prime time TV shows about home renovation in Australia. The most popular being ‘The Block. A long-running series which has consistently been one of the most popular shows on TV.