This report examines how budget-constrained households balance spending on air conditioning versus other essentials like food and clothing during hot weather. Using banking data from Houston, Los Angeles, and Chicago, it finds that low-income households often cope with high electricity bills by reducing air conditioning use and enduring more heat. The findings aim to help policymakers identify strategies to better support these households and improve their welfare amid rising temperatures.

Electrifying heating systems with air-to-air heat pumps is crucial for achieving global greenhouse gas targets. This report uses simulations of 550,000 U.S. households to evaluate the costs and benefits of various heat pump performance levels and insulation upgrades. The analysis highlights the potential for significant emissions reductions and identifies the importance of efficiency and insulation in optimizing cost-effectiveness. It also suggests that supportive incentives and policies may be necessary to address affordability challenges and promote widespread adoption.

Large multifamily buildings with central heating systems that burn fossil fuels are among the hardest to decarbonize, but new systems such as window-mounted heat pumps, central air-to-water heat pumps, and “mono-block” mini heat pumps provide new options for decarbonizing these buildings. This report finds that window heat pumps generally have the lowest life-cycle capital and energy costs compared to various decarbonization options. 

To better understand the barriers limiting the decarbonization of affordable housing beyond what energy and cost analyses could provide, NRDC commissioned an Arup-authored study of energy retrofits of affordable multi-family housing buildings within the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The study examined five real-world examples to expose obstacles, inefficiencies, and opportunities encountered during retrofit processes. Six key challenge areas emerged that must be addressed to enable decarbonization of affordable housing at scale: carbon reduction strategies, financing, implementation, policy, technical expertise, and tenant impact.

This report looks at the existing research on climate and housing in the U.S, in two key areas: how housing decarbonization and production strategies can reduce pollution to mitigate climate change, and how climate change impacts renters, homeowners, and the broader housing industry. The paper also identifies key research gaps where more evidence would help policymakers to navigate the tensions between different policy approaches.

The IRA presents an immense opportunity, but delivering those resources where they are most needed is no easy task given systemic barriers that often prevent low-income and communities of color from applying for and adopting green energy opportunities. In this blog post, Decarbonization Fellow Kiera Quigley explores why new funds and programs "must center the needs and voices of environmental justice communities, or threaten to leave them behind."

Multifamily housing accounts for 20% of greenhouse gases. That makes taking advantage of unprecedented incentives and funding via the Inflation Reduction Act critical. This blog post previews new tools from Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF) and Cadence OneFive to help the affordable housing sector unlock the potential of this landmark investment in affordable housing and energy efficiency.

An overview of different types of affordable housing, including common affordable housing programs, organizations, and regulations. The resource is part of the digital toolkit, Advancing Mobility from Poverty, developed by Enterprise and StriveTogether.

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.

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.