ACEEE’s Energy Equity for Homeowners initiative is helping tackle the challenges of reducing energy waste in owner-occupied housing, particularly for low-income homeowners and homeowners of color. Our goal: protect the climate, reduce energy costs, and preserve housing affordability.
Dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions from residential buildings is vital for combating climate change. Owner-occupied homes make up a large percentage of the residential building sector and therefore are key for achieving climate goals. At the same time, historically disinvested communities are disproportionately impacted by climate change, bear higher burdens of the energy system, and are often excluded from the clean energy transition's benefits. Successfully reaching an equitable clean energy future will require action that prioritizes these communities.
Research Spotlight
- Guide for local governments. Our guide offers strategies for cities to scale energy efficiency in owner-occupied housing. It includes lessons learned from several local governments and best practices to ensure equitable outcomes.
- Workforce development case study. This resource profiles a workforce training program that prepares individuals to perform energy upgrades in owner-occupied housing. Cities can explore aspects of this program and learn about its approach to equitable workforce development.
- Energy burden brief. This policy brief, an update to our 2020 energy burden report, examines data on household energy burdens in 25 U.S. metropolitan areas. Cities can use these data points to prioritize households experiencing high energy burdens—the share of income spent on energy—for energy investments.
ACEEE Assistance to Two Cities
ACEEE provided technical assistance to two local governments and their partnering community-based organizations as part of the Energy Equity for Homeowners initiative. ACEEE provided the two cities with support on programs to institute evaluation processes and metrics and identify opportunities to leverage funds to scale energy efficiency efforts.
- Colombus, Ohio: The City of Columbus, in partnership with community-based agencies, offers a workforce program known as Empowered! to help young adults learn about clean energy careers. ACEEE worked with Colombus to identify an evaluation framework and metrics to track the program’s progress and impact.
- Kansas City, Missouri: In recent years, Kansas City has experienced challenges pursuing energy efficiency investments due to limited financial resources and staff capacity. ACEEE offered guidance to Kansas City and its community-based partners on opportunities to leverage and complement energy efficiency and other service programs to bring the benefits of energy efficiency to more residents.
ACEEE’s Energy Equity for Homeowners initiative is generously supported by the Kresge Foundation and The JPB Foundation.