13:30 pm – 14:40 pm Break out – Academic Paper Panel – The Affordable Housing Crisis and Greenhouse Gases in the Supply Chain (Session 4) Paper A: Valuing the Impact of Affordable Housing in Ontario Brierley, T. and Geobey, S., University of Waterloo, Canada Paper B: Identifying greenhouse gas emissions throughout the supply chain using the life cycle approach and the challenges of reflecting them in accounting and financial indicators. Ghozlani, K. and Kumar, V., Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Canada

Session Chair: Grace Adams, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University

Paper A: Valuing the Impact of Affordable Housing in Ontario

Abstract: Ontario is facing an affordable housing crisis. As of 2016, 12.7% of Canadian households were in core housing need. This issue is especially prominent in Ontario as 15.3% households were in core housing need, with 75% being attributed exclusively to a lack of affordability (Gov’t of Ontario, 2020). Much of the shortage is attributed to an insufficient supply. The project is part of a multi-stakeholder initiative to create an assessment framework to value affordable housing projects, grounded in academic theory and practice. The purpose of this research project is to identify social, environmental, and indirect economic contributions of affordable housing projects. Further, it seeks to understand which contributions are cost-effective to monitor and exploring how these can be employed to better understand the value of affordable housing. These learnings are then deployed to develop a methodology for estimating the social return of affordable housing projects.
The framework will employ the Common Approach to Impact Measurement (CAIM) standard, a 5-step process for impact measurement used by impact investors, social enterprises in Ontario, and supported by the Canadian Social Finance Fund. The study uses a mixed methods design including a structured content analysis of existing literature, semi-structured interviews with professionals, a stakeholder questionnaire to determine weighting of indicators, and stakeholder verification of the final framework.
The assessment framework is intended for use by organizations to evaluate their affordable housing projects, efficiently allocate funding, and advocate for additional funding. The framework will help give organizations the ability to economically measure the social impact of projects to encourage increased investment and more holistic planning. The project intends to contribute to existing literature in the areas of affordable housing valuation, social finance, and impact measurement.

Paper B: Identifying greenhouse gas emissions throughout the supply chain using the life cycle approach and the challenges of reflecting them in accounting and financial indicators.

Ghozlani, K. and Kumar, V.

Abstract: 2020 UN Financing Sustainable Development Report identified growing interests in sustainable finance that need to be nurtured. In this paper we analyse some of the challenges associated with capturing financial attributes that reflect the sustainability of underlying economic activities.
Particularly, we consider greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions throughout the value chain of an actor and along the supply chain of a whole industry sector. We use supply chain methodologies such as Life Cycle Analysis to identify GHG emissions and associated leakages (i.e. material GHG emissions unaccounted for). These leakages often occur at the interface between successive layers of suppliers of an industry sector and might not be captured in its financial indicators.
Therefore, by identifying and accounting for carbon leakages of an industry, we present its true GHG footprint and quantify better the abatement of GHG if renewable energies are used instead. This is important for sustainable finance for 3 reasons. 1- Various carbon pricing mechanisms use the value of the GHG abatement to price emissions, 2- End-customers are better informed when procuring products or services based on the total footprint of that industry and 3- Shareholders and stakeholders can exercise better judgements when considering an industry sector in its entirety.