Greener Homes: the home-loan book

Every enrolled home rated for energy and water from its own meter or inverter data — on the measured method behind South Africa’s national EPC standard, voluntary for homes and registered nationally, not a bank-specific scheme. Investec funds the Essential layer for the book as a Private Bank benefit; homeowners can upgrade for daily insights, nudges, solar and heat-pump integration and data-sized upgrades, and keep every rand they save. Behind it, every home’s measured carbon feeds Investec’s Scope 3 (financed emissions) reporting and Investec’s own energy-efficiency benchmarking. Twelve representative, anonymised homes shown; ratings and per-home carbon are generated automatically from the same data.

Homes enrolled · 2,437Private Bank home loansSubscribers shown: 6 of 240 pilot homesScope 3 · PCAF-readyCommon standard · measured method

Homes enrolled

2,437

Essential layer Investec-funded · upgrades opt-in via the app

Homes rated · national method

2,180

A–G on the SANS 1544 measured method · voluntary · registered nationally

Portfolio energy rating

D 92kWh/m²/yr

Geysers & pools drive household load

Portfolio water rating

D 780ℓ/home/day

Irrigation & leaks dominate outliers

Verified savings, YTD

R 412k/q

Utility savings · 100% kept by homeowners

How it runs · nothing for Investec to administer

Non-invasive · not admin-intensive · frequent awareness · clear · yours to run

🔒

Non-invasiveRead-only meter link and a phone-camera Scan — no site visits, no forms, nobody in the client's home. Identity visible to the homeowner and Investec only.

⚙️

Not admin-intensiveRatings, tCO₂e and the Scope 3 roll-up are generated automatically and land in PCAF format monthly. No spreadsheets, no audit cycle, no team to hire.

📅

Frequent awarenessMonthly scorecard, weekly nudge, an alert only when something is wrong — homeowners stay aware without effort; the bank watches the book move.

🎯

ClearOne A–G band, one rand figure, one tCO₂e number per home — the same number on the homeowner's phone and in Investec's report.

🧭

Yours to runA self-serve admin view: invite clients, set rewards and cashbacks, export Scope 3. GreenX runs the engine; Investec runs the programme.

What it delivers

For the homeowner, for the book, for the sustainability report

SavingsEnergy, water, waste and carbon — measured per home against its own baseline, kept 100% by the homeowner, verified for Investec.

Behaviour changeQuests, leaderboards and nudges turn a rating into habits — geyser, pool, irrigation, standby — and recertification proves each one stuck.

Capital upgradesScan identifies the insulation, glazing, façade and PV projects that make the saving permanent — funded through Investec for long-term sustainability.

Rewards programmePoints, tiers and challenges Investec sets and brands — the engagement layer on the home loan.

CashbacksVerified milestones — a band improved, a quest done, a project commissioned — paid as cashback into the home-loan or transactional account, at Investec's discretion and funded by Investec.

Scope 3, doneThe reporting is the by-product: every home measured, every month, in the format the sustainability team already uses.

Homes

Anonymised, representative homes. Select one to open its rating; subscriber homes open the Rewards view.

Energy rating distribution

Enrolled homes by energy band

Water rating distribution

Enrolled homes by water band

Residence

Home circuits

Disaggregated from the smart meter · select a circuit

Circuit	Energy	kWh/m²/yr	Water	ℓ/day	EPC status	vs baseline

Block

12-month energy intensity against the home baseline

Monthly kWh/m²Baseline

Water use

Daytime vs night-flow, last 12 weeks · night-flow signals a leak or a geyser element fault — the homeowner and their plumber are alerted first

Daytime ℓ/dayNight-flow

Greener Homes pathway · this home

Scope 3 → quests → recertification → capex project → funding → credits

How the certificate is produced

No manual assessment cycle

Metering API→kWh/m² · ℓ/day→Energy + water rating→Rating issued & registered

Homes receive voluntary ratings on the measured method behind South Africa's national EPC standard (SANS 1544: kWh/m² per year, A–G) — clearly labelled voluntary, never statutory, generated automatically from meter or inverter data and registered nationally. One rating any lender can read; the same numbers feed Investec's financed-emissions (PCAF) reporting and Investec's own benchmarking, without manual audits.

Live programme · quarter 3

Greener Homes: Investec’s programme, funded by Investec

Investec covers the Essential layer for every enrolled home as a Private Bank benefit — the rating, the monthly scorecard, leak and geyser alerts and the home’s carbon figure. Homeowners can upgrade to Plus or Premium for daily coaching and data-sized upgrades, and every rand they save stays theirs. Every home’s measured tCO₂e flows into Scope 3 reporting whether or not the homeowner upgrades.

−9.2%energy vs baseline, pilot average

−13.6%water vs baseline, pilot average

2,437homes enrolled · scorecards via WhatsApp & app

3.4×average utility saving vs subscription fee

Top-saving subscriber homes

% improvement vs own baseline · anonymised · subscription tier shown

WhatsApp feed

What a homeowner sees · Bryanston home

Alerts routed this week

Sent to the responsible person, not to a report

Subscription tiers · who pays

The rule: the free layer must be a gift on its own; every paid feature shows its own rand value in the app ("this found you R430 this month") — and offers a downgrade if it doesn't. Plus is free for the first two months.

Investec covers Essential for the whole book · a client benefit · Scope 3 coverage on every home

R100 · EssentialSee your home — the gift layer

Smart-meter link & automatic A–G rating
Monthly scorecard, energy & water
Leak & geyser-fault alerts
Your home's tCO₂e, every month
Quests & recertification

R250 · PlusSave actively — the money-finding layer

Daily "what changed" — one line each morning, the thing that cost you
Timed nudges — tariff, solar-window and load-shedding aware
Per-appliance breakdown — geyser, pool, aircon, oven from the meter signature
Bill forecast & anomaly guard — block-tariff step warnings, prepaid days left
Away mode — baseload & night-flow watched while you travel
Smart schedules — geyser, pool, irrigation; control with an optional smart plug
Solar, battery & heat-pump integration — inverter API, heat-pump health check

R500 · PremiumFull concierge — the next-upgrade layer

Next best upgrade, sized from your data — PV kWp, battery kWh, heat pump, insulation, pool cover: cost, saving, payback
Funding-ready project pack for a green top-up
Engineer review call, quarterly efficiency review
Priority plumber/electrician dispatch
Cottage / tenant split of the bill
Home energy passport for selling or letting

Monthly savings, six representative subscriber homes

Energy improvement vs baseline by week · each home vs its own baseline · the value behind the fee

The Greener Homes pathway

Five steps, one data spine. Every enrolled home's measured carbon lands in Investec's Scope 3 line on day one; quests move the rating and trigger a recertification; the Scan app identifies the bigger fabric and façade projects a quest cannot reach; Investec funds them against the verified saving; and the verified reductions across the book are aggregated for carbon credits. Each step is priced and evidenced on the one before it.

Book · 2,437 homesScope 3 · PCAF-readyRecertified this quarter · 318Capex projects identified · 412Credits programme · design phase

1Scope 3 capture

Every home's tCO₂e from the meter and the grid factor — financed emissions per home, per R1m lent, PCAF data-quality score 2.

3,910 tCO₂e · book, last 12 months

2Quests & recertification

Geyser timer, pool schedule, LED, leak fix, irrigation — each completed quest re-rates the home automatically.

318 homes moved a band this quarter

3Bigger projects identified

Scan photo audits flag the fabric work: roof and ceiling insulation, glazing, façade shading, heat-pump geysers, PV.

412 projects · R 38m identified

4Funding of capital

A green top-up on the existing home loan, sized so the verified saving covers the instalment — Investec's lending, GreenX's evidence.

R 11.6m funded · 127 homes · pipeline R 26m

5Carbon credits

Metered before/after reductions aggregated across the book into a voluntary-market programme; registry and methodology to be selected with Investec.

1,140 tCO₂e/yr verifiable · R 0.29m at R250/t

Scope 3 · financed emissions

Per home, rolled up to the book · PCAF-ready

3,910 ttCO₂e, last 12 months, enrolled homes

1.6 tper home per year, book average

0.42 tper R1m of outstanding loan

DQ 2PCAF data-quality score — metered, not modelled

Emission factor: Eskom grid average, updated annually; rooftop PV netted at the meter. The per-home figure is what Investec reports; the homeowner sees the same number on the scorecard.

Quest board · book this quarter

Completed quests trigger an automatic re-rating

Credits · how the book earns them

Illustrative · programme in design

Each home's reduction is metered against its own baseline — the same verification behind the rewards — so the book's aggregate is auditable home by home. Reductions from funded fabric projects are additional and durable; behavioural reductions are counted only while sustained. Homeowner share and Investec share to be set; GreenX takes no share of credits.

1,140 ttCO₂e/yr verifiable today

R 250/tworking price assumption

R 0.29mper year at current book

×4at 10,000 homes

Capex projects identified by Scan · top of the book

Fabric, façade and plant projects a quest cannot reach — each with cost, verified-saving basis, band uplift and funding status

Home	Project	Identified by	Cost	Saving / month	tCO₂e / yr	Band	Funding

Funding line: green top-up on the existing Investec home loan, instalment shown against the verified monthly saving. "Covered" means the saving meets or exceeds the instalment on the platform's own measurement.

Ahead on the common standard

A home rating only counts if every bank, funder and homeowner can trust the same one. Greener Homes runs on the measured method behind South Africa’s national EPC standard — the same kWh/m², A–G approach used across the EU — extended to homes, voluntary, and registered nationally rather than owned by any one bank. Investec is first onto it: the first book of measured homes, the first benchmark update, and the reference the rest of the market follows.

Common standard · not bank-specificMeasured, not modelledRegistered nationallyWorks alongside EDGE

Investec leads by using it first — not by owning it

The standard stays national. The product stays Investec’s. Every enrolled home is rated on the same method a funder would accept from any bank, so Investec’s green home-loan product, its Scope 3 line and its internal benchmarking all sit on numbers nobody has to re-verify. When the sector process lands, Investec is the bank with a measured book, an updated benchmark and a product already in market.

2,180homes rated on the national method

1stmeasured residential benchmark sample

0bank-specific rules in the rating

12 mofrom pilot to sector benchmark update

One method, one rating

EU method → SA national standard → homes

The national standard already rates offices on measured kWh/m² per year, A–G, five-year certificates on a national register. Greener Homes applies the same measured method to houses — voluntary, clearly labelled, automatically generated from meter or inverter data. Any lender can read it; no lender owns it.

Design and performance stack

EDGE certifies the design · the rating certifies the result

EDGE tells you how a new build should perform. A measured rating tells you how the home actually performs, every year after. Investec’s green-building facility and Greener Homes work on the same houses at different moments — one at handover, one for the life of the loan.

Investec’s own benchmarking, from the same data

Book · segment · region · vintage

The numbers that feed the national rating also feed Investec’s internal energy-efficiency benchmarking tool: which segments of the book are efficient, which regions lag, where a green top-up pays back fastest. One data collection, two uses — no second survey, no second vendor.

The benchmarks get better — and Investec is the reason

Current residential benchmarks vs Investec’s measured homes · kWh/m²/yr · illustrative

4080120160200+

South Africa’s residential benchmarks are old and set high, so most homes look better than they are and the bands say little. Measured homes reset them. Investec’s book is the first sample big enough to do that; the updated bands go to the standard-setter, and every bank rates against the better benchmark. Investec is credited as the source.

Investec’s book against the market

Energy intensity, kWh/m²/yr · illustrative

Because every enrolled home is measured, Investec can benchmark its book against the current national bands today and against the sector as the common standard rolls out — the comparison Proparco asked for, on numbers a funder can check.

How the common standard gets built — and where Investec sits

A sector process, with Investec already measured

1Investec’s book measured

240-home pilot, then the enrolled book. Ratings on the national method from month one; Scope 3 and benchmarking live.

Now → Q1 Investec-funded

2Benchmark update proposed

Measured distribution handed to the standard-setter as the first residential sample. Investec named as the source.

Q2 with the standard-setter

3Sector process

Banks together through the Banking Association; the national register holds the ratings; funders accept one standard for every bank.

2027 sector-funded

4Investec’s head start

Product in market, book already rated, benchmark already updated — the reference the rest follow, and the template for other African markets.

2027 → first mover

The rating and the register stay national and lender-agnostic. Investec’s brand sits on the product, the rewards and the green top-up — not on the certificate.

Investec Greener Homes · concept demo prepared for Investec · not an Investec product or offer · all homes, figures, benchmarks and rewards illustrative · measurement by GreenX Engineering