The City of Denver is using the Greenlink Equity Map (GEM) to overlay their building benchmarking data over the GEM data in order to explore their commercial energy efficient focused energy policies with an equity emphasis.
We're also currently working with the City of Denver to incorporate an equity index into GEM. They’re interested in strengthening their equity work with community, government, private, and non-profit partners to dismantle systemic inequities and barriers to growth across the city.
Their goal is to create weighted equity scores for the census tracts containing 17,000 buildings across the city as they work to increase the city’s safety, health, and inclusion. With the integration of this equity index, GEM users would have the ability to map and identify which buildings they should prioritize for aid and resources. When coupled with GEM’s forthcoming change over time variables, the equity index will also be used to produce a report card for the City to use at the citywide level addressing:
- Areas of Progress
- Areas for Improvement
- Comparisons to other cities
Having a tool or index to properly measure the performance and progress on equity of the city’s buildings is crucial for neighborhoods, communities, businesses, and residents to thrive. It will also help serve as a communication device when integrated with change over time data, providing a measure of progress across the city and within communities.
For more information on how the City of Denver is using GEM, please contact Maria Thompson at Maria.Thompson@denvergov.org.
Photography by: Andrew Coop