Our Approach
BEI believes cities are powerful change agents that can pilot innovative and equitable solutions.
At BEI, we take a highly collaborative approach to helping city staff and community organizations realize their potential as agents of change. We invest in building long-term relationships within our cities and work closely with city staff and partners to identify equitable strategies that fit their local contexts.
We bring a strong commitment to equity to ensure that the transition lifts up all communities and helps mitigate past harms. We recognize that leaving communities behind would put our climate goals at risk, and that local governments have both the ability and responsibility to advance justice for all communities.
As former city employees ourselves, we understand firsthand the strengths that cities bring to equitable climate action, as well as their limitations. This allows us to help city staff work pragmatically within their existing governmental structures while also helping to expand their partnerships, resources, and influence.
We focus on working with new partners and across multiple sectors. This includes helping our cities build partnerships across community development, public health, resiliency, housing, workforce, labor, and other sectors. We also recognize that engaging with those who are typically left out of the policymaking process is critical to developing successful and equitable strategies. We help our cities collaborate and co-create new programs, policies, and strategies with communities of color and others who have been historically marginalized.
Our work with cities goes beyond local borders to influence regional, state, and federal outcomes. We help local governments amplify their voices at these levels of government and push for policy change that will facilitate an equitable transition toward clean energy for all. As our cities demonstrate their successes locally, we seek to inspire others to follow their lead.
At BEI, we are committed to continuing to learn and grow. Every day, through honest reflection, new collaborations, and continuous iteration in our approach, we evolve. We know that much more needs to be done to uplift communities who have been marginalized in the past and to push toward an equitable transition toward buildings that are healthy, safe, resilient, and fossil-fuel free.
This is just the beginning of our story.
Learn more about our impact.
BEI’s 2023-2025 Strategic Plan
Read BEI’s Strategic Plan that will guide our work through 2025, ensuring that we build on our progress to date to create a more equitable, healthy, and fossil fuel-free future for all.
BEI’s Commitments to Social and Racial Equity
Learning: We commit to learning from historical and current conditions to better understand how building electrification impacts racial and social equity, and we use that insight to improve our strategies and deliver tangible benefits to communities historically excluded from housing, energy, and climate solutions.
Team Culture: We create and sustain a culture of belonging, psychological safety, joy, and professional growth for staff of color and all BEI team members, leading with organizational practices that emphasize transparency, collaboration, flexibility, accountability, and grace.
Process: We coach government and institutional partners on working with communities of color and other historically excluded groups to shape decisions, shift power, and advance solutions rooted in community needs.
Outcomes: We design and implement strategies that directly reduce racial, economic, and other social disparities by lowering energy burden, improving affordability and health, creating quality jobs, and building wealth for communities of color and low-wealth households.
Systems: We build strategic partnerships to align our building electrification work with movements for racial, economic, and climate justice—supporting systemic change that benefits all communities while prioritizing those most impacted.