Climate Safe Housing: Strategies for Multifamily Resilience
Communities across the nation are regularly experiencing natural disasters or recovering from them. While all communities are at risk, low-income communities are disproportionately affected by climate events and often have limited resources to recover. This guide provides owners and operators of multifamily housing with practical guidance on re-designing and retrofitting their buildings to adapt to and provide protection from climate risks and other potential hazards.
Enterprise Green Communities Case Study: The Ohringer Building (Pennsylvania)
This case study provides an overview of the adaptive reuse of the historic Ohringer Building in Braddock, PA. Guided by the Enterprise Green Communities 2015 criteria, developers were able to transform this local landmark into affordable, climate-ready housing while preserving the history and integrity of the building.
Salem Heights Apartments: Deep Energy Retrofit Case Study (Massachusetts)
Salem Heights Apartments, an affordable multifamily property in Massachusetts, recently underwent a deep energy retrofit to achieve passive house performance. This case study highlights the retrofit design strategies that enable 60% energy use reduction and show the integrated benefit of efficiency improvements, electrification, and solar. Specific strategies are described for the building envelope, exterior insulation, HVAC, and solar energy.
Energy Service Agreements for Deep Efficiency and Electrification Retrofits of Affordable Multifamily Housing in California
Over half of California’s 3.2 million multifamily units were constructed before energy efficiency standards, resulting in poor performance and high greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve California’s greenhouse gas reduction goals, affordable multifamily housing must improve energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and lower tenant utility bills while enhancing quality of life. Yet building owners face many challenges to improving the performance of their buildings. This report covers the role certain types of energy service agreements, combined with federal incentives, can play in scaling affordable multifamily retrofits.
A Blueprint to Decarbonize Affordable Housing (Boston)
This case study showcases Allston Brighton CDC’s approach to decarbonizing multiple properties through deep energy retrofits. This nonprofit affordable housing owner in Boston has emerged as a champion of building decarbonization. They are poised to cut energy consumption by an impressive average of 55% across 103 residential units. What’s more, their team members have offered a one-page guide for similar building owners and projects on how to pursue various funding sources for retrofit success.