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Transportation is a pricey household expense. The cost of public transport and buying, fueling, insuring, and maintaining a vehicle adds up quickly. So quickly in fact that the average American spends about 15% of their annual income on transportation, second only to the cost of housing. This plays out so that lower income households tend to pay a larger percent of their budget towards transportation than those in higher income brackets due to a combination of fewer transportation options, less flexible employment, and more isolated housing. These prohibitive expenses eat into a person’s ability to pay for other necessities in life, such as food and medical care, which further solidifies and exacerbates the economic divide and harms quality of life. The point being that reliable, affordable, and easily accessible transportation are essential components of good living and social equity. Or, as Peter Haas succinctly put it, "Transportation is a means to an end, not an end itself." He's the chief research scientist for the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), which helps communities use tools to tackle the issues they face to improve living standards and economic opportunities. Greenlink Analytics, in partnership with CNT, just launched a new mapping layer for the Greenlink Equity Map (GEM): Transportation Burden. This dataset measures the percent of a household’s income spent on public and private transportation. Understanding the relative weight of this cost can help city managers, mayors, and other legislators understand who and where people are most impacted and where to direct funds, including towards clean energy transit options like an electric streetcar. Not all communities are equally served when it comes to transportation choice. Take for example, San Francisco, CA, or Boston, Mass., vibrantly dense cities where residents can walk, cycle, rideshare, take public transit, order food delivery, telecommute, and finally, if need be, use a car.  In comparison, Birmingham, AL, or Nashville, TN, would be a very difficult place to live car free due to accessibility and sprawl. Combine that with a lower income and life starts to get very challenging. “Transportation costs are driven by two things,” said Haas. “The characteristics of a neighborhood and then those of a household.” That’s the kind of data CNT gathered from the American Community Survey 2019 to model transportation costs in maps, charts, and statistics for 917 metropolitan and micropolitan areas—covering 94% of the U.S. population down to neighborhood level. After multiple conversations about the best way to represent household-based transportation equity across the country, Greenlink acquired CNTs transportation burden data. The data was integrated into Greenlink’s database on the census tract level and loaded into GEM. “Bottom line was, we needed tools like GEM to help us understand where to focus our resources and attention, because we didn’t want to go to an area that wasn’t equity focused” says Karen Apple, EV program manager for the City of Phoenix Office of Sustainability. “These tools are available, they’re helpful, and they can help mayors and councils understand where our equity areas are.” Apple explains tjat Phoenix is a large, car-dependent city that likes to “build out not up.” Sixty percent of residents live in lower-income areas. So, when the City decided to launch an electric-mobility (read: electric cars, e-buses, and e-bikes) and equity project, it became essential to understand how people get where they want to go, where people are going, and what would help make travel better. For eight months the City listened to communities and used tools, like GEM, to help them understand where to focus their e-mobility equity sessions. "Our goal is to minimize greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality,” said Apple. “We understand that electric vehicles are just one solution to pollution.” Of course, this is just one specific city project within a huge realm of opportunities. Greenlink is thrilled to launch the transportation burden indicator and begin to understand what  differences the maps can make in supporting cleaner, more accessible, and affordable transportation for everyone. (Watch the full Community of Practice on Transportation Burden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsBDxHeliik)

When the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed in 2022 it became the country’s largest investment in domestic energy production and manufacturing while maintaining a goal of reducing carbon emissions by about 40 percent by 2030. Over the next decade, a lump sum of $369 billion will wend its way from the Federal coffers into various energy security and climate change programs. One of these programs is the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) that will allocate a total of $5 billion in grants to states, local governments, tribes, and territories to develop and implement ambitious plans for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other harmful pollutants. States, local governments, and other eligible recipients of an initial $250 million, disseminated in 2023, are using the money to research and develop plans for their specific communities that will result in reducing emissions and increasing equitable outcomes. The deadline of March 1st for these preliminary climate action plans, or PCAPs,  is fast approaching. The PCAPs are the basis for the program’s second phase where the communities will outline in very detailed plans, known as comprehensive climate action plans (CCAP), on how they would make use of the remaining $4.6 billion in funding set to be awarded from the CPRG. “The IRA lays out an opportunity for communities to seek funding to assist programs and policies the communities want that otherwise may not have existed,” said Michael Gilley, Greenlink’s program manager. “The people who are putting together these PCAPs and CCAPs are doing the heaviest lifting and need all the assistance they can in order to get the money their communities need.” The CPRG program is a huge opportunity for those on the receiving end to create inventories of their greenhouse gasses, figure out specific ways to get those numbers drastically down, ensure that the people benefiting from these reductions are equitable, and make sure they have the structure in place to turn that plan into action. That’s easier said than done. The local government officials responsible for piecing together these very complex plans and applications may lack the necessary resources and support needed for submitting  the CPRG grant applications  in a timely or accurate way. Which would put the local communities at risk for not receiving their piece of the $4.6 billion in federal funding. The Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN), a national nonprofit that connects sustainability experts from local governments to improve impact, pulled together a group of like minded organizations, including Greenlink Analytics, in order to provide support to those government officials putting together their CPRG applications. Together they are helping metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) across the country with various aspects of their plan development, data collection, grant writing, and more to improve chances for receiving grants from the CPRG program. Some of the details of the CPRG grant calls for specific plans related to reduction of GHG emissions and benefits analysis for low-income, disadvantaged communities. Greenlink is specifically helping these MSAs by providing some basic GHG inventory data, carbon intensity forecasts, clean energy job forecasts, access to Greenlink Equity Map (GEM), and additional correlational analysis. ”We want to help as many MSAs  as possible assemble high quality action plans, affording them the opportunity to be competitive for the implementation grants,” says Etan Gumerman, lead analyst for Greenlink. “Greenlink’s readily able to provide climate data which would otherwise require these organization to spend significant time and money ” By the conclusion of this project, Greenlink will have provided over 50 individual reports of GHG data, carbon intensity forecasts, workforce calculations, along with access to critical low-income, disadvantaged communities information for over 16 local governments across the country, including Birmingham-Hoover, AL., Lexington-Fayette, KY., PIMA county, AZ., San Francisco, CA., and over 120 associated counties. The following organizations are collaborating to provide this assistance: Greenlink Analytics USDN Collective Strategies Skog Rasmussen Elevate Energy Building Electrification Institute Southeast Sustainability Directors Network C40 Cities Climate Mayors

Greenlink had a big year, and much of that was due to all the incredible people helping to drive a fast and fair clean energy transition! Join us in looking back at the top 10 stories for 2023 showcasing the work happening at Greenlink and with many of our many incredible partners. 1. Still We WeatheRISE Atlanta: Adrienne Rice, founder and executive director of Sustainable Georgia Futures, wants to solve two pressing problems at once: systemic racism and climate change. The two issues inextricably intertwined for Black communities in Georgia… 2. Mapping Racism in the U.S.: The term redlining has become synonymous with discriminatory housing policies and a legacy of racist practices. Redlining stems from the 1930s when the federal Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) published city maps categorizing neighborhoods by their alleged mortgage-lending risk… 3. Equitable Residential Building Decarbonization in Philadelphia: Buildings are a common focal point for city climate policy since residential and commercial buildings require large quantities of natural gas and electricity for heating, cooling, lighting, and other needs. In fact, buildings are responsible for approximately 30% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. In Philadelphia, they account for almost 70% of the city’s emissions… 4. The Native Lands Mapping Tool: For far too long, Native American communities have been left off the world map,, but also excluded from conversations about gathering and use of data. On June 22, 2023, Greenlink Analytics’ new digital mapping tool will make it easier to locate and understand Native territories in the U.S… 5. Disadvantaged Communities Tool: Environmental justice has come a long way since its inception alongside the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Once a novel term, the concept is now a full-fledged movement influencing people in power, including the Federal Government… 6. Our Missing Native Nations: Shé:kon (say-go) from the Greenlink Equity Team, which means hello in Kanien'kehá, one of the languages of the Mohawks. The Mohawks live in communities across northern New York State and southeastern Canada and have called these lands home for thousands of years before colonization. They’re one of 574 federally recognized Native Nations across the U.S. striving for continued recognition of their people and safekeeping of their cultures… 7. Greenlink Analytics' 2022 Annual Report: At the beginning of 2023, Greenlink published its first ever Annual Report, showcasing the amazing things our team achieved in 2022… 8. New Report Finds Orlando’s Lower Income Communities Face High Energy Burden: A new report published by Greenlink Analytics shows a large disparity between the energy burden faced by different communities across Orlando, from a low of 1.8% to as high as 9.2%. Energy burden is the percent of income spent on electricity and gas bills. The national average of the percentage of household earnings going towards energy costs is roughly 4%. 9. The Importance of Trust: How Community Engagement Helped Pass Legislation in Decatur: “Everything’s greater in Decatur,” says the City of Decatur, Ga. motto. The maxim represents a city that prides itself on walkability, good schools, vibrant small businesses, community collaboration and pioneering innovation. But like many cities around the country, Decatur, Ga., grapples with how to best integrate climate change solutions into practicable policy as the area warms… 10.  A Clean Energy Fund Would Boost Equity in Atlanta: There’s a little-known crisis happening in Atlanta right now: thousands of people are struggling to remain in their homes due to the unforgiving cost of their electricity and gas bills. This doesn’t play out well for the residents of Atlanta, the resilience and vibrancy of the city, or the city’s ability to reach its clean energy goals. And the bottom line is that the failure to address the root cause of high energy bills is stressing families and disrupting communities…

The natural gas water heater tucked away in my murky basement needs replacing. For the past eighteen years I’ve barely given it thought as it consistently provided the downstairs of my house hot water, even when the electricity went out for whatever reason. But a few months ago, the overflow tank sprung a slow leak and has picked up in rhythm. It’s only a matter of time before the system fails completely and my basement turns into a kiddie pool. I’m hoping to find a new one that’s more energy efficient, reduces carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and saves me money in the long run. According to the Department of Energy the average household spends between $400 to $600 every year heating their water. That cost accounts for approximately 14% to 18% of utility bills. Finding more efficient options can mean big savings. But this depends on lots of details and there are pros and cons to consider with each. Let’s break down the broad options. Water heaters divide into two large categories based on their power source– natural gas or electricity. They further subdivide into tank and tankless options. This means that when it comes to replacing my own water heater – there were four main choices: Heat Pump Water Heater Electric Tankless Conventional Gas Water Heater Gas Tankless Greenlink Analytics did a quick number crunching exercise to look at the cost of different options over a lifespan in terms of financial, CO2 emissions, and health costs (see bottom of article). Hint: a heat pump wins the day on numerous fronts. In addition, you’ll need to know the size of the water heater that best matches the size of your home and family, you may need larger or smaller systems. ELECTRIC 1. Heat Pump Water Heater: A heat pump water heater is also called a hybrid water heater. It operates by moving heat from one place to another instead of generating heat directly for providing hot water. They’re the most efficient way to heat water for residential use and can be two to three times more efficient than traditional water heaters, provides cost savings. Pros: About three times more efficient than a conventional tank water heater and does not emit any direct CO2 into the home. Cons: Needs space to function and the efficiency decreases in colder climates. Estimated Costs: Up to $3,000 (for a 50-gallon tank) Estimated Installation Costs: It can be difficult to track down a professional installer and installation costs can be over $8,000, including the appliance costs and inspection fees Rebates: The Inflation Reduction Act provides a $1,750 rebate for heat pump water heaters, or a tax credit up to $2,000. Life expectancy: 10-15 years Other requirements: They work best when installed in areas of the home that remain in the 40–90 degrees Fahrenheit and have at least 1,000 cubic feet of space around the water heater for good airflow. The home may require updates to the electric panel. 2. Electric Tankless: An electric tankless heater warms the water directly without using a storage tank. They take up less space, are more efficient than conventional tank water heaters, do not need to be vented, and provide continuous hot water. Tankless water heaters gain efficiency because they heat water on demand, instead of needing to continuously heat water in a tank. A whole 3 to 4 bedroom house electric tankless may draw more than 25,000 watts of electricity and needs a 150-amp, 240-volt breaker. The total electrical service for many houses uses less than a whole house electric tankless system may require. Pros: Take up less space than a tank water heater and does not emit CO2. Cons: May require upgrades to the electric panel and can increase electricity costs. Estimated Costs: $500 - $1500. Estimated Installation Costs: Between $800-$1500 Rebates: 10% federal tax credit Life Expectancy: Can last 20 years or longer Other Requirements: Requires annual maintenance to achieve the appliances longest lifespan. NATURAL GAS 3. Gas Tankless: A gas tankless heats water directly without using a storage tank. So they take up less space, are more efficient than conventional tank systems, and provide continuous hot water. These water heaters are up to 34% more efficient, which can save you money. It does need to be vented when installed indoors, but can be installed outside. Pros: They take up less space and are more efficient than water heaters with a tank. Cons: Depending on size of home and amount of water use, you may need more than unit one to supply hot water to multiple systems simultaneously. Estimated Costs: Between $1,000 - $1,500 Estimated Installation Costs: $1,000 to $1,500 Rebates: 10% federal tax credit Life Expectancy: Can last 20 years or longer Other Requirements: Requires annual maintenance for longevity and best performance. 4. Conventional Gas Water Heater: These tank systems store large amounts of cold water that’s heated by a natural gas flame. These are the least efficient of the systems yet most commonly installed and well known. They also can run out of hot water at times. Pro: Lower price point Cons: Less efficient than all the other options, emits CO2, and can cause flooding in the home if bursts. Estimated Costs: $550-$2000 Rebates: none Life Expectancy: Approx. 15 years Other Requirements: Takes up a significant amount of space and requires venting.

This week we’re cutting through the data, energy, and equity jargon by sharing our own definitions of the most common terms from climate change to verification. We’ve spent time drawing on the knowledge, expertise, and culture of Greenlink with the goal of simplifying and demystifying any complex or vague language and capturing the heart of their meaning. Enjoy reading through the terms and please share those that resonate with you. Climate Change: One of the biggest issues facing humanity caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Use climate emergency or climate crisis when describing the broader impact of climate change. Data Analytics: The science of analyzing raw data to draw insights from that information. Energy: The use of physical power generated from various resources such as fossil fuels and renewables) that enables society to grow, develop, and achieve its goals. Equity: Alleviating the hardships of those most harmed by obstructed access to resources and ensuring they receive the largest benefits that support their overall wellbeing and to correct for past wrongs they have endured. Intersectional: Understanding how the connections between mainstream social constructs (such as gender, religion, race, etc.) influence an individual or community’s experiences with privilege and/or discrimination. Listening Tour: An inclusive process, that Greenlink conducts internally, of interviewing climate and equity experts across the country to understand gaps in policy and guide the direction of our work. Net Zero: Cutting greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, to as close to zero as possible. Nonwhite: A broad term used to replace BIPOC because “people of color” it’s not inclusive of all ethnicities and reduces people to an acronym. Paris Climate Agreement: An international treaty that aims to keep global warming to no more than 1.5°C – as called for in the Paris Agreement – emissions need to be reduced by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. Pathways: How we get to net zero or the goal depending on the scenario. Racism: The harmful belief system that a particular racial or ethnic group is inferior to their white counterparts. Renewable Energy: Energy sources that won’t run out, including solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower. Scenarios: Alternative futures. Systemic Inequities: Barriers embedded in society that perpetuate continued discrimination. Testing: Providing data with known answers to ensure the pattern has been learned. Verification: Checking the pattern more comprehensively across more data and more tests.

Adrienne Rice, founder and executive director of Sustainable Georgia Futures, wants to solve two pressing problems at once: systemic racism and climate change. The two issues inextricably intertwine for Black communities in Georgia. The country’s entrenched history of racism continues hurting nonwhite people and burdens them with the most dangerous effects of climate change, while simultaneously stifling the ability to build wealth and participate in the solutions. That’s why Rice launched her nonpartisan grassroots organization to build channels so that Black and Brown communities can help develop and benefit from a regenerative economy. At heart, it’s about building power and healing broken systems. “We’re trying to get people to do a paradigm shift in the way they’re dealing with Black communities,” says Rice. “This allows them to chart out their destinies and create change.” It’s a journey of a thousand steps, and one that’s more pressing than ever. One step along the way is a partnership with the City of Atlanta through its WeatheRISE program *. The program aims to improve the housing conditions of Atlanta’s most energy burdened neighborhoods by providing energy efficiency and other home upgrades. The upgrades will reduce electricity and gas bills, decrease carbon emissions, improve health outcomes, generate jobs, and preserve affordable housing. It's a relatively small project within a larger plan for Atlanta running off of 100% clean energy by 2035. Atlanta is in the top five most energy burdened cities in the country, where median energy burdens for low- and moderate-income households hovering between 9% and 13% despite low electricity rates. And 100% of the most energy burdened neighborhoods in Atlanta are primarily Black, according to the Greenlink Equity Map (GEM). “The GEM system has been really helpful because we’re supposed to focus on the highest energy burden areas,” said Rice. “It also helps us engage.” Greenlink Analytics is undertaking the community mapping, analysis, and data reporting of the WeatheRISE program. The National Association of Minority Contractors will provide the energy audits and upgrades and job opportunities for contractor training. And Sustainable Georgia Futures is leading the outreach, education and enrollment components through neighborhood canvassing. Representation matters. Involvement also matters. Sustainable Georgia Futures has hired 11 community leaders from the most burdened communities to serve as “Campaign Ambassadors” for the program. These Ambassadors will canvas door to door to further connect with people and identify specific needs. Bringing these Ambassadors on board also means recognizing that their circumstances differ from community leaders in less burdened areas. It’s a gap that must be bridged. So, Sustainable Georgia Futures is funding their transportation, childcare, meals, and paying them $20/hour to do this important work. That pay rate will increase to $25 in January 2024 after the organization receives additional funding. “That way when they arrive, they don’t have to worry,” emphasizes Rice. “We’re showing people how to treat Black people.” Sustainable Georgia Futures and the Ambassadors have already knocked on over 1,000 of the 5,000-door goal. One hundred and eighty-seven people have signed up for the community survey that only requires a total of 200 people. With the program only recently launched, these numbers reveal the high level of interest and need in these communities. And that’s why Sustainable Georgia Future’s vision reaches far beyond WeatheRISE. WeatheRISE is the launchpad to identify leaders and activists in the counties they’re working in. The next step will be creating organizing committees with these 11 communities. The third phase will focus on community specific issue-based campaigns. It’s a multi-year process that slowly builds much needed power within Black communities in Atlanta. “It’s not enough to elect a few better representatives or pass a few better laws,” says Rice. “When we listen to the people closest to the problem and take action together, then we make change.” *This project is being supported, in whole or in part, by a federal award awarded to the CITY OF ATLANTA by the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Buildings are a common focal point for city climate policy since residential and commercial buildings require large quantities of natural gas and electricity for heating, cooling, lighting, and other needs. In fact, buildings are responsible for approximately 30% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. In Philadelphia, they account for almost 70% of the city’s emissions. Reducing energy use through energy efficiency and weatherization programs and transitioning to high-efficiency, clean energy technologies can provide huge emissions benefits, and in turn, reduce bills and improve health. This is especially needed in Philadelphia, which experiences significantly higher than average high energy burdens, disproportionately impacting Philadelphia’s historically marginalized and vulnerable communities. "Equitably decarbonizing Philadelphia’s residential stock is essential to achieving our carbon targets and ensuring an equitable and just energy transition in our city,” said Nidhi Krishen, Deputy Director for Climate Solutions, Philadelphia’s Office of Sustainability To better understand how to implement impactful strategies to equitably decarbonize the city’s buildings, Philadelphia developed an analysis of its building and housing stock, to understand the size, scope, and scale of this stock by type, age, use, size and energy profile. The analysis was used to inform the City’s strategy to decarbonize the residential housing stock. The City then partnered with Greenlink to pair this housing data with equity metrics such as energy burden. With this approach, the City could focus their work in the neighborhoods and communities with the greatest needs. The City and Greenlink worked to overlay Philadelphia’s housing data into the Greenlink Equity Map (GEM) tool, leveraging equity metrics already developed and mapped by the tool. This was a multi-faceted approach that included acquiring a building list from the city, integrating building data with equity attributes such as energy burden, race, and income, and visualizing the final dataset in GEM. The analysis helped the City visualize and appreciate the inextricable links between the age of homes, levels of insulation, owned or rental properties, income, race, and energy burden. Together the metrics highlight key areas of need where the City can concentrate their efforts to ensure that Philadelphia’s clean energy transition is equitable and just. “This work helps us understand the scope and scale of need for decarbonization in our historically marginalized and vulnerable communities and informs decision-making on equitable climate action in the city,” said Krishen.

At Greenlink Analytics, we believe everyone should have access to clean energy, regardless of their socioeconomic status. Our work in and for communities impacts important energy decisions across the nation. We equip the communities we serve with data, analytics, and expert advice to ensure a more equitable distribution of energy resources. Those impacts speak directly to our core values and are the foundation for Greenlink as an organization. We are a passionate group who wants to do good using our expertise to impact positive change. The Greenlink Analytics we know today started back in 2014 with our founders, two PhD students at Georgia Tech - Caroline Golin and Matt Cox - developing a superior technology for analyzing energy systems and an inspiring vision for the future. The vision – a fast and fair clean energy transition – is why Greenlink exists today, and why we celebrate Founders Day! In the nine years since inception, Greenlink has made huge strides in terms of vision and impact. Much of our work begins with an initial analysis or report that informs large results over time. Take for example when Greenlink worked with like minded partners in Virginia to analyze the pathways toward a fairer, fully decarbonized energy grid. This was a project back in 2019. However, the Governor’s office used this detailed scenario evaluation to guide the passage of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which became law in 2020. Another example starts in 2016 when Greenlink testified on behalf of equity and faith-based communities for the creation of a first-of-its-kind Income Qualified Energy Efficiency program by Georgia Power. The program would provide income-eligible customers free energy-efficiency home improvements. The Georgia Public Service Commission agreed with the testimony, and Georgia power was ordered to create a $2 million pilot program. With Greenlink’s continued engagement in 2019 and 2022, this program has more than tripled in size, helping thousands of energy burdened families in the state. To date, Greenlink has identified pathways to avoid 8.4 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions. We have worked with cities and states to find $757 billion in savings for communities. Our clean energy and community research has identified ways to save over 20,000 lives. And we have implemented over 90 equitable processes, which means engaging and allowing communities who have historically been silenced to receive data and therefore guide policy decisions due to their specific needs and vision. Our incredible team is at the heart of this work. More than anything, Greenlink wants to thank our people for all they do to achieve a cleaner and more just world. We see you. We applaud you. We are inspired by our accomplishments so far, and those still to come.

A Way to Find, Measure, and Access Funding Environmental justice has come a long way since its inception alongside the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Once a novel term and concept is now a full-fledged movement influencing people in power, including the Federal Government. In 2021, the Biden Administration created the Justice40 Initiative to ensure that federal agencies make good on environmental justice by delivering 40% of the investments in climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, clean water, and other projects to disadvantaged communities. A community qualifies as “disadvantaged” if a census tract measures above the threshold for environmental, climate, and socioeconomic indicators. Yet, one of the challenges in executing Justice40 is finding the communities who are most in need of these investments, and directly streamlining funds to them. A new indicator within the Greenlink Equity Map helps make this possible and — dare we say — easy. Our disadvantaged communities indicator comes from the federal Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST), which identifies communities that face disproportionate burdens. The tool computes a stack of socioeconomic and environmental statistics for every census tract in the country. These metrics include income, whether it is near legacy pollution sites, and has a high projected flood or fire risk. There are numerous reasons we wanted to include this layer of data within the Greenlink Equity Map (aka GEM). With billions of investment dollars available through the American Rescue Plan, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the IRA, it’s an important moment to get right. This means ensuring that these disadvantaged communities need to be easy to identify. It also means understanding community burdens at a deeper level. By including disadvantaged-community data in GEM, people can now concurrently measure other burdens communities face, including heat intensity, asthma rates, energy burden, tree cover, etc. Burdens sometimes cluster in eye opening ways revealing the inextricable connections between the environment, human health, and the cost of living. This is a highly efficient and manageable way to look at a multitude of factors affecting communities without having to have multiple windows and websites open. Finally, any federal funding opportunities need to be paired with community engagement to paint a better picture of where the financial efforts should be focused. The disadvantaged communities indicator can help start the discussion of where local programs should focus. Click to book a demo and see the Greenlink Equity Map's disadvantaged communities layer in action.

Guiding Co-creation Processes with Environmental Justice Communities At the beginning of the year, our very own Greenlink Analytics, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), a state agency that manages wildlife resources, and LivZero, a participatory research firm that works with community members to co-create climate solutions, joined in alliance to help facilitate a community-led conservation initiative in Kansas City, Missouri. In the early days of 2022, MDC approached LivZero to build intellectual, financial, and personnel capacity for the creation of their Community Conservation Liaison Program — a community-driven initiative aimed to increase environmental safekeeping in Kansas City’s Tier I or environmental justice communities. It took a year for the procurement process to be finalized, after which the team got to work. LivZero first approached Greenlink Analytics to help inform their community engagement process and assess conservation needs through a holistic lens. Together, they conducted a correlational analysis to better understand the relationship between multiple burdens, such as utility burden, asthma rates, tree canopy coverage, and heat intensity, plaguing Kansas City’s communities. The analysis outlined the census tracts and neighborhoods struggling with three or more inequities in the top 5%, or most burdened areas, as published in this report. With this information, LivZero began prioritizing and investing their efforts in these neighborhoods. LivZero has deep relationships with MDC and Greenlink Analytics. Collectively, it is an unlikely alliance of a nonprofit, a for-profit, and a federal government entity with similar goals to address the intersecting burdens of historically forgotten, marginalized, and disinvested communities of the Kansas City, Missouri Metropolitan Area. The intent of this alliance is to address the harm frontline communities (ones that experience the “first and worst” consequences of climate change) face by their already unjust conditions further exacerbated by the climate crisis. Each institution has agreed to take the back seat, let the community lead, and surrender any assumptions of what the community wants and needs. With the right mix of trust, data science, community engagement, and public interest, data can be used in a way that sincerely enables ecological safekeeping, especially benefiting communities that endure the most burdens…and that just happen to benefit everyone else, too. With the right mix of trust, data science, community engagement, and public interest, data can be used in a way that sincerely enables ecological safekeeping, especially benefiting communities that endure the most burdens. By working together, we hope to create a new partnership and community engagement model that can be replicated across all of MDC’s regions, setting the precedent for other state entities looking to join forces with community partners, while showing the influence data analytics, used earnestly, can have on community-driven program and policy design. There is much work to be done. We are committed to iterative processes. Building these unlikely alliances across various entities that aim to address community priorities and needs takes time. They are rooted in trust, calculated risks, and the art of listening. And that’s just what we need. We cannot operate in silos and expect systemic improvements. For more information, please reach out to Angelica (Jellie) Chavez Duckworth, Director of Community Initiatives at Greenlink Analytics.

In 2021, the City of Tampa pledged to power its municipal operations using 100% clean and renewable energy, which includes solar, energy efficiency and renewable energy credits (RECs). Their goal is to combat the climate crisis and embrace the rapidly changing energy landscape in a practical and methodical manner to improve the city’s sustainability and residents' wellbeing. But the City needed a plan for how to get there. That’s where Greenlink Analytics comes in. City of Tampa and Applied Sciences, an engineering and design firm, requested that Greenlink analyze the city’s current and future energy use, along with its various energy-related programs, to develop realistic pathways to 100% clean energy. City operations. The report examines and highlights cleaning the electricity sector first by identifying where the City is going (Business As Usual) and two approaches to get the City to where it needs: Moderate, and Ambitious. "For the first time, the city now knows how much energy it uses - and the cost of that energy – across hundreds of accounts,” said Whit Remer, Sustainability and Resilience Officer for the City of Tampa. “Greenlink also provided realistic and flexible options to achieve 100% renewable energy based on time, cost, and reliance on RECs.” Here’s a quick rundown of the City’s possible energy future. The Business as Usual future, means the city wouldn’t make any changes to energy use or infrastructure and that electricity consumption will grow by 14% between 2022 and 2042, emitting 1,800,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. The Moderate future finds that 50% of municipal operations would be run by clean and renewable energy by 2042 and would require 26% less grid electricity than business as usual. It would mean implementing a number of energy efficiency and renewable initiatives the City is already considering, such as installing solar at multiple facilities, upgrading the city’s high service pump station, completing half of the HVAC upgrades identified for commercial buildings, and LED retrofits and energy efficient window installations. The price tag for the most cost-effective energy savings options would be about $34 million. The Ambitious future finds that municipal operations would achieve 85% clean and renewable energy by 2042 and would require 54% less grid electricity than business as usual. It would mean implementing all HVAC upgrades, energy efficient window retrofits, and LEF light retrofits, as well as solar installs and high-performance roofing. The price tag for the most cost-effective energy savings options would be about $75 million. Overall, the report shows that Tampa is well positioned to reach its goal of 100 %clean energy. Though none of the pathways get the City all the way there without the use of RECs, the widespread adoption of renewables and energy efficiency measures can get the city most of the way there within the next 20 years. That would be a huge accomplishment. Read the full report: Tampa's 100% Clean and Renewable Municipal Energy Plan.

By Matt Cox, CEO and Founder Greenlink Analytic There’s a little-known crisis happening in Atlanta right now: thousands of people are struggling to remain in their homes due to the unforgiving cost of their electricity and gas bills. This doesn’t play out well for the residents of Atlanta, the resilience and vibrancy of the city, or the city’s ability to reach its clean energy goals. And the bottom line is that the failure to address the root cause of high energy bills is stressing families and disrupting communities. “When your rent gets higher by $300 and your utilities go up an extra $300, you will lose your home,” said Wykeisha Howe, who co-chaired Atlanta’s Clean Energy Advisory Board with me through 2022, in a recent interview. And Howe would know, because it happened to her family when the pandemic hit and inflation soared. It would be easy to blame the problem on a lack of climate action and the need to regulate monopoly utilities like Georgia Power (which do need more vigorous efforts), but the issue is more complex and disconcerting. This is an issue of whose energy is affordable and whose isn’t. It’s about who is able to access clean energy and enjoy its financial, health, and environmental benefits. Peel back the rhetoric and clear up the confusion, and you’ll find a situation where climate policy, racial justice, sustainability, healthcare, economic development, and affordable housing meet. The direction of the status quo is increasingly burdening the lives of Atlantans - but we don’t have to accept that. Right now, an opportunity sits in the hands of City of Atlanta decision makers that could improve the lives of people like Wykeisha Howe, and thousands of other residents who bear the brunt of outsized utility bills. It’s called the Clean Energy Fund. And it’s a team effort trying to take this from vision to reality, involving Partnership for Southern Equity, City Council Member Liliana Bakhtiari, and Clean Energy Advisor Board members to name a few. As the CEO of Greenlink Analytics, I want to see the Fund established since it would provide essential, sustainable, and impactful funding for helping Atlanta meet its 100% Clean Energy goal by 2035, especially by providing the necessary support for easing energy burdens and improving housing conditions excessively borne by the city’s Black communities. And with the Fund being locally controlled, it can be responsive to the changing needs of our communities. I believe that passing this equity-improving legislation is an easy way to direct funding towards improving the health, housing, and energy burdens disproportionately affecting Black communities in Atlanta. This approach requires no new taxes and could sustain and grow the effectiveness of existing energy efficiency and weatherization programs. Atlanta is one of the top five most energy burdened cities in the country, and it has been for as long as those statistics have been tracked. Over 40 predominantly Black neighborhoods experience the greatest stress, while no predominantly White neighborhoods are even in the top third. Highly-burdened households suffer higher rates of eviction, foreclosure, displacement, asthma, stroke, diabetes, and pulmonary disease. Overlapping Energy Burden with the Proportion of Black Households (top) and Asthma Rates (bottom). Images from the Greenlink Equity Map (www.equitymap.org) These same households are also less likely to benefit from utility programs and resources. While energy burden is a measure of affordability, it’s also a canary in the coal mine for the multifold unjust hardships caused by systemic racism. Cutting energy burden entails providing dollars, relief, and attention directly towards the people and communities who suffer the most. It’s also a tremendous chance to build health and wealth. “There are a lot of people who live in this city whose homes are not up to par and their bills are so high because they don’t have the proper insulation, windows, or even hot water,” said Howe over the phone. “Funds like these will be instrumental and would change some lives, and then these families would see just a little relief.” Here’s how the Clean Energy Fund would work. Utilities (read: power, gas, and telecommunications companies) currently pay a 4% fee in exchange for using the city’s public rights of way. This is called the “municipal franchise fee.” Since Atlanta energy utilities make about $1 billion annually from Atlanta residents and businesses, that’s approximately $40 million that goes back into City coffers, which could be channeled towards clean energy programs. The Fund would use a percentage of this money to finance weatherization, energy efficiency, health, and safety in the most energy burdened homes. It would be a sustainable and ongoing source of revenue that the City has control over, providing much-needed flexibility in program design and implementation. Greenlink crunched some preliminary numbers on the impact of the Fund using our advanced energy systems software ATHENIA. With about 10% of the fee revenues, we estimate that the Fund could help 4,000 families, support 1,100 jobs, provide about $65 million in new income and $26 million in health benefits through 2035. It would also avoid about 470,000 tons of CO2. A higher percentage of the fee would increase these benefits. This would be much-needed action for Atlanta’s most energy-burdened communities and work towards shared goals of energy and housing equity. It’s also just a start. Atlanta needs about $350 to $400 million to achieve energy affordability, and more funding opportunities are being announced every day as investments from the Inflation Reduction Act and other Federal programs roll out. Efforts like the Clean Energy Fund will assist with stemming the increasing cost of electricity and gas bills and help address intersectional issues of housing insecurity and healthcare, aiding in repairing and replacing social structures that have placed so many burdens on Atlanta’s Black population. Atlanta’s crisis of Black displacement.