1. Learn the history of racist policies that intersect with building electrification.

OUR PROGRESS

Learning and sharing the history of racist policies is critical to holistically addressing long-standing inequities for Black and Brown communities and equitably distributing the benefits of building electrification. Policies to electrify homes and buildings are not just climate policies, they are also fundamentally housing policies—with major implications for affordability, gentrification, and displacement in cities. As such, BEI staff has focused significant time learning the history of housing and land use policies in the U.S. and understanding the priorities of housing justice advocates. In addition, BEI staff have spent time exploring the racial implications of energy policies, learning the history of local labor movements, and understanding the impacts of public health initiatives. BEI actively works with cities to share these histories and identify solutions to mitigate past harm.  

RELEVANT RESOURCES

• The Environmental Movement Needs to Reckon with its Racist History, article by Julian Brave NoiseCat in VICE 

• Segregated by Design, video by Mark Lopez and Richard Rothstein

• Mapping Inequality, online resource hosted by the University of Richmond

• Labor Unions 101: Institutions and Movement, recorded webinar from NEWHAB 

• Should the Electric Grid be Anti-Racist?, blog from the Union of Concerned Scientists

• California’s Clean Energy Programs are Mainly Benefiting the Rich, article from the Los Angeles Times

• How racism is a structural and social determinant of health, by Mark Rastetter, MD

• Urban planning as a tool of white supremacy, by Julian Agyeman

2. Help city sustainability staff learn from and co-create policies with communities of color and other stakeholders who are typically left out of the policy development process.

OUR PROGRESS

The perspectives of low-income communities and communities of color are critical to ensuring building electrification programs and policies are effective and will benefit those who have been harmed by past policies. Centering these voices in the policymaking process will require local government staff to approach stakeholder engagement differently and more intentionally than they often do. BEI works with its partner cities on community engagement and co-creation processes to design opportunities for increased involvement and ownership of solutions for historically under-represented communities. This includes, for example, supporting the creation of new venues for participation that are more accessible to systematically disadvantaged communities, developing transparent processes for collecting and incorporating community feedback, providing fair compensation for local expertise, engaging in participatory research with potentially impacted stakeholders, and investing in capacity-building for community groups to increase their ability to collaborate with local, regional, and national policymakers. 

RELEVANT RESOURCES

• From Community Engagement to Ownership, guide from USDN, Facilitating Power, Movement Strategy Center, and National Association of Climate Resilience Planners

• Why Participatory Planning Fails (and How to Fix It), article from Next City

• Targeted Universalism: Policy and Practice, report from the UC Berkeley Othering & Belonging Institute 

• Process Guide for City-Community Collaboration, guide from Facilitating Power and Upright Consulting Services

• Equitable Building Electrification Framework, report from The Greenlining Institute

• Equitable Approaches to Building Electrification, resource from BEI

3. Support city staff in developing strategies to address racial inequities through building electrification policies and programs.

OUR PROGRESS

Implemented well, building electrification can improve housing affordability, enhance environmental health, increase access to high quality jobs, and improve economic opportunities for people of color and other historically marginalized communities. These are clear benefits that can help create a more just society, but delivering these benefits will require centering the priorities of communities that have been historically marginalized and directing new public investments to those who need them most. BEI coaches our cities to move past a standpoint of simply trying to do no harm and into a more proactive role of using climate and sustainability policies to address ongoing inequities in their communities. This has required both BEI staff and our cities to work with social and racial justice experts, lean into the tensions that are inherent to complex social issues, and work intentionally at the intersections of housing, health, resiliency, workforce, economic development, and climate change policy to enable change.  

Thanks to the federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), there is now unprecedented funding available to decarbonize buildings in the U.S. However, conventional retrofit programs have not met the unique needs of frontline communities and communities of color, and continuing this model risks leaving huge swaths of cities behind or even causing real harm. In 2024, BEI launched a national partnership to advance community-driven retrofit programs, which has released guidelines for local and state policymakers (linked below). The partnership plans to support dozens of communities over the coming years to ensure the federal funding advances equity at the intersection of building retrofits, housing affordability, and economic inclusion.

RELEVANT RESOURCES

• Equity and Buildings: A Practice Framework for Local Government Decision Makers, guide from USDN, Upright Consulting Services, Emerald Cities Collaborative, and the American Cities Climate Challenge

• Los Angeles Building Decarbonization: Tenant Impacts and Recommendations, report from Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) 

• Healthy, Climate-Resilient Homes for All: Centering Housing Justice and Health Equity in Building Decarbonization, report from NRDC and multiple partners

• Decarbonization without Displacement: Tenant Advocacy in the Context of Inflation Reduction Act Implementation, report from the Climate + Community Project

• Building Electrification and Housing Affordability, resource from BEI 

• Workforce and Economic Inclusion High-Road Jobs and Workforce Development for Climate Action Guidebook, guide from USDN

• Guidelines for Maximizing the Benefits of Federal Investments in Buildings, guide from Elevate, BEI, Emerald Cities Collaborative, the Greenlining Institute, Greenlink Analytics, Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, and NRDC

• Guidelines for Creating Community-Driven Building Retrofit Programs, report from C40 with significant input from Elevate, BEI, Emerald Cities Collaborative, the Greenlining Institute, Greenlink Analytics, Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, and NRDC

4. Develop hiring and retention practices for BEI that will increase the racial diversity of our staff and support the professional development of our internal leaders of color.

OUR PROGRESS

BEI recognizes that our work can only succeed if we have a racially diverse team who bring a wide variety of skillsets, perspectives, and experiences. As we have grown, we invested in new outreach channels and equitable hiring practices, and half of our current staff, including our senior-level staff, are people of color. We also recognize the importance of creating an inclusive work environment to retain our staff and investing in internal processes that reward creativity, curiosity, and new ideas within the organization. BEI has invested in human-centered management processes, including establishing team-wide core values as part of our 2023-2025 Strategic Plan, implementing collaborative project goal-setting, and facilitating bi-annual in-person retreats to help ensure that all staff feel supported in their professional development and growth. We also provide trainings on Interpersonal Leadership Styles to help us generate greater understanding and empathy for each other based on our lived experiences, individual skills, and perspectives. By centering diversity, understanding, and empathy and investing in supportive structures for our staff, we are striving to create a work environment in which all of our leaders can thrive over the long-term.

RELEVANT RESOURCES

• Race and the Work of the Future: Advancing Workforce Equity in the United States, report from National Equity Atlas

• Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Recruitment, Hiring, and Retention, guide from USDN

• Toolkit to Mitigate Bias in Recruitment & Hiring, resource from Avarna

• Building Resilient Organizations, article by Maurice Mitchell

• Radical Candor, book by Kim Scott

• Impact with Integrity, book by Becky Margiotta

• Nonprofit Resources, Coaching, and Trainings from The Management Center 

5. Examine and dismantle the ways in which white supremacy may continue to affect our work culture and engage in an ongoing learning process to become anti-racist leaders in our field.

OUR PROGRESS

We recognize that advancing social and racial equity with our cities requires us to lead by example. To this end, BEI staff has participated in numerous racial justice learning opportunities hosted by NEWHAB, USDN, and other partners and we hold regular internal discussions to reflect on ongoing social and racial equity challenges. BEI staff have also participated in Common Spark Consulting’s “Energy (in)Equity” training to better understand how the energy industry has historically perpetuated systemic and racial injustice and AORTA’s Headwaters Anti-Oppression Facilitation Training Program to learn anti-oppression facilitation skills. We also seek to identify how white supremacy continues to manifest in our work and address issues that are common in our field, such as perfectionism, defensiveness, and a false sense of urgency. We do this not through weaponization of the concepts or blame for others, but through active self-reflection that allows us each to individually learn and grow. Dismantling white supremacy in all its forms will not happen overnight, but we remain committed to doing our part to rectify its harms by centering humanity and respect for others at all times in our  work culture. 

RELEVANT RESOURCES

• Divorcing White Supremacy Culture, online resource from Tema Okun

• Race: The Power of an Illusion, online resource from PBS

• A Progressive’s Style Guide, resource from Sum of Us

• Emergent Strategy, book by adrienne maree brown  

• Energy (in)Equity, training program from Common Spark Consulting 

• Headwaters Anti-Oppression Facilitation Training Program, training program from AORTA