The American Council for an Energy Efficient-Economy (ACEEE) has just released a toolkit to assist utilities ensure that the poorest energy users do not miss out on beneficial energy efficiency technology. The publication notes that residential energy efficiency programs can lower energy bills, improve thermal comfort and indoor air quality, and make homes more resilient to climate change. However, ACEEE research has repeatedly identified a pervasive problem among these residential programs: their inability to fully serve all customer segments, especially those most in need.
The toolkit aims to rectify this by helping utilities to ensure benefits are spread widely among eligible low-income customers.
Participants of residential energy efficiency programs tend to be disproportionately white, higher-income, college-educated homeowners. Due to systemic racial, economic, social, and geographic inequities, the following customer groups tend to be missed by residential energy efficiency programs:
• Communities of color
• Non-native English speakers
• Low- and moderate-income customers
• Residents of multifamily buildings
• Renters
• Rural customers
• Tribal nations
• Residents of mobile or manufactured homes
This toolkit is written for energy utility and state-level program administrators aiming to improve program participation among historically underserved customers.
The ACEEE proposes a five-point plan to re-engage with these energy users:
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Pursue equitable community engagement.
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Establish a one-stop shop
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Create and disclose equity metrics
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Develop a diverse and inclusive energy efficiency workforce.
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Tailor marketing based on customers' preferences and behaviors.
The report notes that there is a historical lack of trust between these communities and organizations like utility companies. It proposes that community engagement and outreach is necessary to build up a rapport between the two parties. It cites various initiative that have succeeded, such as Minneapolis’s Green Zones Initiative which seeks input and puts decision-making power into the hands of residents.
Creating a one-stop shop is another powerful implement. Traditionally these various programs have been put into silos, (for example, single-family residential, multifamily housing, commercial) which makes access difficult or confusing. By making everything available through a one-stop gateway, it enables people to find the right program easily and ensures greater take-up. The Philadelphia Energy Authority's Built to Last program offers a one-stop shop for home repair, energy efficiency, and healthy housing interventions. Eligible applicants must be homeowners whose annual household incomes fall below a maximum amount. After applying, a homeowner then receives a home assessment that evaluates potential for health and safety repairs, energy upgrades, and rooftop solar installation.
Program administrators should create metrics related to equity goals and evaluate progress over time. Metrics are particularly effective for improving equity when they are transparent and paired with accountability processes.
Enable a diverse workforce: expanding workforce opportunities for underserved communities is another way that these customers and their communities can benefit from energy efficiency programs. Energy efficiency programs require a capable workforce that can effectively implement energy upgrades, and many of the same groups that are underserved by residential energy efficiency programs are also underrepresented in the energy efficiency workforce. Clean energy jobs can pay 8–19% more than national average hourly wages so can be beneficial to poorer sectors.
Tailoring programs to the needs of the users is important too. Though financial concerns are central, other considerations matter. Tailoring marketing requires learning about customers’ specific needs, preferences, and behaviors. Two approaches are particularly effective. The first involves thinking of the decision to participate in a program as a process with stages and tailoring marketing based on where the customer is in that process.“Chicago’s Go Program” used a behavioral science-based approach to encourage energy efficient travel, after extensive community research.
The ACEEE's toolkit is a useful method to help utilities explore various strategies to increase energy efficiency program uptake among their less affluent customers.
Adapting Energy Efficiency Programs to Reach Underserved Residents