Healthy, Climate-Resilient Homes for All: Centering Housing Justice and Health Equity in Building Decarbonization
National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) supported the leadership of the Building Energy, Equity, and Power (BEEP) coalition in creating this issue brief. The brief examines how we can center the leadership of disinvested communities and integrate health equity in building decarbonization to create a more just and equitable future.
IRA Bootcamps
National Housing Trust (NHT) hosted a series of sessions for Housing Finance Agencies (HFAs) and multifamily affordable housing providers to offer peer support and personalized learning opportunities for leveraging IRA funding. The virtual sessions ran from May - December 2023, and users can access the content from each session on NHT's website.
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.
Transforming Existing Buildings from Climate Liabilities to Climate Assets
Retrofitting buildings is a critical climate strategy, but we cannot ignore the embodied carbon impact of these retrofits. The production, transportation, and installation of materials all come with their own carbon footprints. This report provides data to support using low-carbon and carbon-storing materials in deep energy retrofits to reduce net emissions and transform buildings into climate assets. Lower embodied carbon options exist today and can be substituted for traditional materials.
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.
Clean Energy 101: Geothermal Heat Pumps
Geothermal heat pumps offer highly efficient heating and cooling without fossil fuels. They are especially valuable in supplying heating on extremely cold days and support heating electrification with only modest impacts on electric grids. These heat pumps are widely applicable from single family homes to large properties, or even networked systems providing heating and cooling to entire neighborhoods. The blog article highlights the characteristics of this technology and new opportunities for greater adoption.
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.
Designing Successful State Energy Office IRA Rebate Programs
State energy offices (SEOs) are moving fast to launch $8.8 billion in rebates funded by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for home energy efficiency and electrification to save families money, increase comfort, and reduce pollution. Those rebate programs are especially important for low-to-moderate income households and multifamily buildings. This presentation by Just Solutions, Energy Innovation and RMI highlights key considerations for both SEOs and their implementation partners, including utilizing data to set program objectives, offering hands-on support for participants and contractors, ensuring durable retrofit market momentum, and facilitating stakeholder involvement to inform solutions. Equity priorities will be a common thread throughout the webinar, including guidance for serving affordable multifamily housing.
How to Upgrade and Electrify Millions of US Homes and Buildings
The White House and Department of Energy (DOE) recently laid the foundation for two monumental home energy upgrade initiatives: the Home Efficiency Rebates program, which offers up to $8,000 to households, and the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates program, which provides up to $14,000. These rebate programs — made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act — represent one of the largest-ever federal investments to decarbonize the US building stock and help Americans pay for home efficiency improvements such as better insulation, all-electric heat pumps, and induction stoves.