Scale Zero: Healthy, Zero-Emission, Affordable Housing for All
RMI / Boulder, Colorado
To meet 1.5°C climate targets and ensure equal access to healthy, affordable buildings, we must dramatically accelerate the pace of building retrofits. Scale Zero will establish a coordinated policy and retrofit implementation approach that will advance supportive policies and reduce the cost associated with zero-emission retrofits in five states. Our policy campaign will build coalitions of supporters to influence regulatory, legislative, and utility programs that drive market demand for zero-emission buildings. Our implementation efforts will focus on catalyzing thousands of affordable, multifamily housing retrofits. By prioritizing historically marginalized communities, we ensure that they benefit first from the health and economic advantages of zero-emission buildings. Building on our existing work and deep expertise, we will push the market towards a “tipping point” that leads to catalytic national transformation.
Scale Zero: Healthy, Zero-Emission Affordable Housing for All
RMI, in partnership with Emerald Cities Collaborative, NYCEEC, Association for Energy Affordability, and Enterprise Community Partners, will decarbonize the nation’s building sector through a two-pronged campaign focused on policy and retrofits of multifamily, affordable housing in five states.
Competition Participation
Buildings account for more than one-third of US energy-related carbon emissions. To meet 1.5°C climate targets and ensure equal access to healthy, affordable buildings, we must dramatically accelerate the pace of building retrofits. Scale Zero will establish a coordinated policy and retrofit implementation approach that will advance supportive policies and reduce the cost associated with zero-emission retrofits in five states. Our policy campaign will build coalitions of supporters to influence regulatory, legislative, and utility programs that drive market demand for zero-emission buildings. Our implementation efforts will focus on catalyzing thousands of multifamily, affordable housing retrofits. By prioritizing historically marginalized communities, we ensure that they benefit first from the health and economic advantages of zero-emission buildings. Building on our existing work and deep expertise, we will push the market towards a “tipping point” that leads to catalytic national transformation.Organization Details
Lead Organization RMI website:http://www.rmi.orgOrganization HeadquartersColorado, United StatesOrganization ID74-2244146Annual Operating Budget$50.1 to 100 MillionNumber of Full-time Employees101 to 300TypeNon-profit
Transition to Clean Energy
Solar United Neighbors / Washington, District of Columbia
To meet climate goals, all U.S. residential buildings need upgrades by 2040 that cut pollution from fossil fuel energy use through comprehensive decarbonization upgrade packages including: efficiency, clean electric heating, smart thermostats, solar, storage, and electric vehicle charging. However, existing approaches that rely on families paying up-front costs or taking on debt fail to reach over half the population — renters and low- and moderate-income households who need the upgrades and resulting energy savings the most. To assure all households can participate, the First Statewide Virtual Power Plant project will partner with utilities to dramatically step up the proven Pay As You Save (PAYS) inclusive investment and cost recovery system that enables energy upgrades to pay for themselves, with no credit check, loan, debt or up-front cost. Building on momentum in half a dozen states already pursuing inclusive energy solutions, the project will accelerate ramp-ups in each, and then run a full-scale implementation in one – achieving residential home energy upgrades in half of all homes statewide by 2030, and all by 2040. The decades of ongoing renovations and deployment of new clean infrastructure will create and sustain tens of thousands of jobs and inject billions of dollars into every local economy in the state. Connecting these homes will create the first statewide virtual clean energy power plant to replace existing polluting fossil fuel power plants and will make meaningful progress toward an equitable clean energy economy.
