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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

The City of Philadelphia Office of Sustainability has been using the Greenlink Equity Map (GEM) for guidance on investments in energy burdens and climate justice in their Energy Burden Focus Groups to address disparity in Philadelphia communities. These Focus Groups provide the City an opportunity to directly hear from Philadelphians about their experiences with housing and energy use. Image: City of Philadelphia. Hunting Park Neighborhood Advisory Committee Board with the shipment of air conditioners after convening energy burden focus group and spending the summer giving away 130 ac units and 30 fans to neighbors living in the hotter than average neighborhood, Hunting Park. At each meeting, facilitators use the GEM maps to show energy burdens in different neighborhoods and how they relate to other indicators such as racial composition, asthma rates, eviction rates, housing type, and more. They’ve found the maps to be useful when talking with community based organization leaders for joint-meaning making as well as for knowledge exchange to drive positive change. As they continue to use the maps and facilitate these focus groups, the City is hoping to use the data GEM provides to expand conversations with residents about energy burden and energy equity. For more information on how the City of Philadelphia is involving community members to address the most burdened neighborhoods, visit the City of Philadelphia Office of Sustainability. Image: City of Philadelphia. Heat Ambassadors in North Philadelphia talking about energy burden and distributing energy efficiency resources.

The City of Honolulu has been using GEM to look at energy burden trends across the city. While analyzing our GEM data, they learned that their data from Hawaiian Electric Companies (HECO) was slightly different. After studying multiple years of HECO data, we came to the conclusion that the discrepancies were coming from the difference in using bill data (HECO) and survey data (GEM and our Census data). Multi-family homes with master meters would be aggregated bill data, whereas individual survey results would lead to different calculated values for energy burden. Having access to GEM energy data has encouraged energy stakeholders including the City to break down silos and share data to best understand what the community needs are. Looking at both sets of data has allowed them to start thinking about energy burden differently across the island. They’ve been strategizing on how to move forward with more solar panels on homes, especially for low-income areas, and how to distribute the benefits and burdens of the energy transition more equitably. For more information on the status of this project, you can contact Anna Mines at anna.mines@honolulu.gov Image from the Greenlink Equity Map.

Environmental justice organization, Verde, serves communities in Portland, Oregon by building environmental wealth through social enterprise, outreach, and advocacy. Over the past year (from February 2020-April 2021), Verde participated in the Greenlink Equity Mapping (GEM) Project facilitated by Upright Consulting Services. Verde provided consulting support for the development of the mapping tool and organized community through participatory research around a number of key issues with the Build/Shift team. The Built/Shift team is a group of community leaders through the Zero Cities Project organized to approach building performance standards through a justice lens. Over the course of the year, the Build/Shift team hosted three Zoom workshops about Community Health, Housing and Transportation, and Community Safety and the Election and Energy Cost Burden. Verde also supported the development of the GEM tool to ensure that it was usable and focused on the data that might be most important to understanding disparities and creating equitable outcomes in Portland. Verde has stated that the GEM tool will be useful in the next phase of their work to support the community-collected energy, energy burden, and housing data. This data will be used for the community-led development of a building performance standards policy for the City of Portland with a focus on healthy and safe rental housing. For more information on how Verde is using GEM, please contact Oriana Magnera at orianamagnera@verdenw.org. Image from the Zero Cities Project Report by Verde

As a central organization for Atlanta’s 100% Renewable and Equitable Cities Initiative, Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE), is using the Greenlink Equity Map (GEM) to engage and educate stakeholders on the importance of a data-informed racial equity framework for Atlanta’s Clean Energy Plan. Together with community leaders and their Just Energy Circle, PSE is developing equity-centered tools and policy-making strategies supported by data found in the Greenlink Equity Map. Since the launch of GEM, PSE has been able to create a robust Equity Maps and Data Project with the Just Energy Circle, the Just Energy Academy and residents in partnership with PSE’s Organizing Unit. With access to GEM, PSE intends to partner with Greenlink Analytics to develop “Energy Insecurity and Clean Energy Planning” modules into their seven-month leadership development program. This program was created to engage, educate, and activate community members who aspire to be energy equity and climate justice leaders in their communities. Partnership for Southern Equity also uses GEM to address the lack of climate data, historical environmental injustices, and for leadership development within the city. Their goal is to support equitable transportation, healthy homes, and climate resilience for the majority Black, West, and Southwest Atlanta communities that make up 6 of Atlanta’s 25 zip codes with the highest energy burden. GEM and the City-Community Data Project has allowed PSE to inform their advocacy from a data centered approach, developing accountability for the City of Atlanta and its goals for an equitable implementation of their 100% clean energy plan. For more information on how Partnership for Southern Equity has been using the Greenlink Equity Map, contact Alicia Scott at ascott@psequity.org. Photography by Tommy Munoz

We’ve been working with the City of Atlanta and their WeatheRISE program since 2019. The City is using the Greenlink Equity Map (GEM) to understand the energy burden trends in Atlanta, where the most burdened neighborhoods lie in the city, and the root causes. Some of these root causes can be attributed to lighting, HVAC, insulation, older buildings, or other causes. The City is using this data to establish a program to deliver home audits within the most burdened neighborhoods across Atlanta. This data will serve as survey data the City can then use to identify core problems found in the housing stock within these neighborhoods. A fund has also been created to weatherize homes in these neighborhoods. To date, the City has invested $2 million, which will cover about 100 homes. For updates on this program, you can contact Shelby Buso at sbuso@atlantaga.gov. Photography by Ian Schneider

The City of Atlanta uses the Greenlink Equity Map (GEM) with their Clean Energy Atlanta Board Task Force to understand the energy burden issues in different neighborhoods across Atlanta and how the burden differs throughout the city. The main focus of the task force is on decarbonizing Atlanta through a net-zero buildings initiative and a committee focused on equity with climate action directing energy priorities in order for the City to reach their 100% clean energy goal. We have been leading committee meetings to help plan and strategize neighborhood planning units as well as preparing the City for state level advocacy. For more information about this task force, you can contact Matt Cox at mcox@greenlinkanalytics.org. Photography by: Ronny Sison