Completed October 2025

American homes sit at the intersection of the climate and housing crises, with households navigating rising costs and outdated equipment that pollutes and causes health risks. Tackling these challenges together offers an opportunity to cut emissions, create jobs, and enable communities to live in healthier, more resilient homes. 

Traditional building retrofit programs often miss entire communities or even lead to negative outcomes, diminishing public support. BEI and our Community Retrofit Collaborative (CRC) partners have defined a better way: Retrofit Navigator programs streamline the retrofit process, reach buildings and households that are often left out, and center the most critical community priorities. 

Retrofit Navigators: Building Retrofit Programs that Advance Climate, Housing, and Community Goals is a step-by-step guide for designing and implementing programs based on best practices. This slide-based report outlines:

  • The scope of need, with buildings contributing a third of U.S. greenhouse gases, millions of homes needing habitability repairs, and the rising cost of living squeezing many American households. 

  • Problems with traditional retrofit programs, which can leave communities behind, exacerbate housing unaffordability, and erode trust in government.

  • Best practices for designing Retrofit Navigator programs, which bring together government and communities to co-create “one-stop shop” programs that assist with every stage of the retrofit process.

  • Steps for designing and launching a Retrofit Navigator program, including research, community co-creation, funding coordination, culturally appropriate outreach, and ongoing program improvement.

  • Case studies of successful existing Retrofit Navigator programs from Philadelphia, Madison, and New York City.

With this report, city staff, community leaders, and other local actors can launch Retrofit Navigators that accelerate the pace of building retrofits in the U.S. The process can help rebuild trust in government and democracy by inviting the communities to be part of the process of improving the places where they live, work, and connect.

 

Download the report    I   View our programs and policies resources

Related reports: 

Guidelines for Creating Community-Driven Building Retrofit Programs

Guidelines for Maximizing the Benefits of Federal Investments in Buildings