Equitable Building Decarbonization: A Path to Climate Resilience
Co-authored by PSR-LA and PODER SF In our first blog post, 'What is a Healthy Home?', we explored the key principles behind healthy homes and why they matter for public health. This blog, coauthored by PSR and PODER, explores how equitable building decarbonization can improve climate resilience.
A healthy, decarbonized home can keep residents cool during heatwaves, reduce air pollution, and provide better protection during extreme climate events. An equity-centered approach to decarbonizing homes ensures that low-income communities and communities of color—hit first and worst by the climate crisis—are protected and not left with the burden of high costs and health impacts.
Vulnerable communities need solutions that address their specific concerns, ranging from affordability issues, poor housing quality, inadequate access to cooling, and unreliable energy infrastructure. Engaging with impacted communities in co-designing policies and programs is essential to developing a more holistic approach to climate resiliency, particularly in advancing equitable building decarbonization.
Equitable building decarbonization programs present an opportunity for comprehensive investments and holistic upgrades that not only improve housing quality and resilience but also address grid instability and additional barriers to electrification.
“...I was born and raised [in San Francisco] and I think that the seasons have changed quite a bit. I don’t remember having seen rains like this and maybe they have happened, but they haven’t lasted for this long, right? You hear of floods happening everywhere. I’ve always seen fires, but I haven’t seen them as much as I’ve seen now. So those are signs for me...something is happening here, and we have to look for change...so we can thank Mother Earth and see how to find that balance. ”
Health Impacts of Climate Change
Climate disasters, such as fires and flooding, pose significant threats to people around the globe, including increasing health risks. For example, fire smoke can infiltrate homes, exacerbating respiratory issues due to smoke particulate matter that can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. This can also lead to a host of health problems, such as difficulty breathing, asthma, and heart failure, and cause lasting harm and even death.
Another immediate and widespread climate issue is extreme heat, which has steadily increased in intensity each year. In Los Angeles, the September 2024 heat waves emphasized the gravity of the situation, with the soaring temperatures driving up adverse health impacts, especially for populations like outdoor workers, the unhoused, older adults, children, and those with preexisting conditions. Exposure to high temperatures can cause heatstroke, asthma attacks, and cognitive impairment, while prolonged exposure can lead to metabolic disorders and even death.
Mental health is another serious concern. Studies show that extreme heat and other climate events contribute to increased mental health issues, including stress, anxiety, and depression. A California study found that heatwaves led to a rise in mental-health-related emergency visits, particularly among Latine populations, compared to other racial and ethnic groups.
Barriers to Resilient Homes
Healthy Resilient Homes initiative demo project in San Francisco
As extreme weather events become more frequent and intensify, health impacts and correlated issues will disproportionately affect renters and low-income communities. Renters are particularly vulnerable because they have little control over the quality or safety of their homes. For example, while many states require landlords to provide heating in the winter, no equivalent legal protections ensure homes are kept cool in the summer, creating a dangerous situation during heatwaves.
Additionally, although 90% of U.S. households have access to air conditioning (AC) low-income communities lack AC or cannot afford to run it. High energy costs make it difficult for these residents to keep their homes cool, forcing them to prioritize other basic needs like food and medicine over utilities. This issue is exacerbated by decades of disinvestment in predominantly low-income or communities of color neighborhoods. These neighborhoods often lack essential cooling strategies and infrastructure, such as trees or green spaces, contributing to higher ambient temperatures. Studies show that areas affected by historic racist housing policies– like redlining, on average, 2.6°C (4.7°F) warmer than non-redlined areas.
“I feel like all people should have the privilege of having this space to breathe, be comfortable, and feel good. I can go outside, and there’s a park. I can sit, I can read, I can have a coffee, or I can get some sun. I feel like sometimes that’s necessary because I feel like in most places downtown or anywhere in the city, you’re just in your building. There are buildings everywhere, and there’s no way to get out of that cube. I feel like this building brings a lot of amenities, but at the same time with a way to make it affordable to the Latino community or other communities that maybe hadn’t been able to.”
Barriers to a Resilient Grid
Historical redlining has also led to inequities in energy infrastructure. Compared to wealthier neighborhoods, low-income communities experience aging, underfunded electric grids that are ill-equipped to handle the impacts of climate change, and more frequently experience blackouts.
Additionally, climate change is driving energy demand and damaging energy infrastructure. As the length and intensity of heat waves increase, so does the demand for electricity needed for cooling appliances, leaving many individuals and households vulnerable to rising energy costs.
While it’s clear that utility companies should prioritize vulnerable communities when investing in grid upgrades and climate resilience measures, they do not. Investor-owned utilities (IOUs), especially, have focused on increasing costs instead of grid maintenance. Over the last decade, PG&E customers have faced a whopping 128% surge in rates; meanwhile, in 2022, in the aftermath of the 2018 Camp Fires, the utility company cut thousands of contractors and employees who worked on wildfire mitigation. Because profit-driven preferences are prioritized over climate mitigation, many communities experience unreliable power and are left behind as the energy sector transitions to cleaner, more resilient energy systems.
One solution is to develop decentralized grids, such as microgrids and community-owned energy systems, which can provide greater energy resilience. A prime example is Casa Adelante at 2060 Folsom Street, a 100% affordable, carbon-neutral housing development in San Francisco’s Mission District. This development has solar panels, ensuring reliable power during extreme weather events. Additionally, the building has a park adjacent to the property, offering residents tree coverage, accessibility to green space, and a space for community convenings. Unfortunately, many similar projects face funding barriers for crucial infrastructure and delays in grid upgrades.
Building Equitable, Resilient Homes on the Grid
Cooling equipment alone does not make a home resilient. A truly resilient home minimizes health and safety risks by ensuring reliable access to power—free from affordability constraints or shut-offs—and is designed to protect residents from dangerous and toxic pollutants.
To address systemic inequities preventing equitable, resilient homes, we must advocate for equitable building decarbonization programs that integrate climate resilience and energy justice. Holistic building upgrades integrating resilience measures, such as backup power and on-site renewable energy generation, can better protect homes from power outages and ensure climate resiliency. These upgrades also include weatherization measures, which improve indoor air quality, reduce the infiltration of pollutants like smoke, and decrease the risk of health impacts like asthma. Energy-efficient, clean technologies like heat pumps can provide affordable heating and cooling, reduce energy bills, and improve preparedness for climate events. By combining building upgrades with climate adaptation measures, we can ensure that vulnerable communities are not left behind during extreme weather events.
However, for climate resilience to work effectively, we need to see adaptation at the household and community levels. Community-wide resilience programs—such as neighborhood cooling centers, solar-powered microgrids, and local clean energy resources—are crucial for protecting entire communities from future climate threats. Nature-based solutions, including expanding tree cover, planting drought-resistant native vegetation, and using cooling-efficient building materials, also play a key role in effective climate adaptation.
The Mission is a historic neighborhood, rich in community and culture
As we work toward a more resilient energy future, the communities most impacted by climate change must be at the center of the decision-making process. This means prioritizing resources in historically neglected neighborhoods, hiring locally for decarbonization projects, and empowering communities to take ownership of their energy futures. It also requires addressing barriers such as upfront costs, poor housing quality, and energy instability to ensure all families benefit from these upgrades. As well as investing in clean energy resources that can withstand extreme climate events—inside and outside the home—over expensive, unproven solutions like hydrogen that can exacerbate health risks.
At PSR-LA and PODER, we are committed to organizing for these solutions to be integrated into equitable decarbonization programs. We are actively engaged in the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) building decarbonization proceeding, advocating for policies that prioritize public health, community input, and climate resilience.
This is a critical moment for communities and public health advocates to voice their concerns, share solutions, and push for a future where every house is a healthy, decarbonized home. Let’s use this historic opportunity to transform the built environment from one that drives climate change and disproportionately harms low-income communities and communities of color to one that promotes health and climate resilience and addresses long-standing disparities in climate justice.
Visit PODER SF and learn more about San Francisco Healthy Resilient Homes initiative at www.podersf.org/san-francisco-healthy-resilient-homes/
