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As the saying goes, health is wealth. At the most fundamental level, health serves as a foundational building block for safety and wellbeing. Accessing affordable, high-quality healthcare should be a right to everyone, believes Vibrant Health. Vibrant is a federally qualified health center based in Wyandotte County, Kansas that provides culturally sensitive and high-quality healthcare for their patients, regardless of socio-economic obstacles. “There are parts of the Northeast Wyandotte that are extremely vulnerable,” says Matt Kleinmann, director of community development for Vibrant Health. “To respond to that, Vibrant wants to create a clinic, but to do that we need a strong foundation about why we need to make the investment, and make sure we’re doing it with the community, not just for the community.” But, providing healthcare that meets community needs is easier said than done because health is not a stand-alone issue. It is inextricably linked to other socio-economic factors, such as housing, economic stability, and natural environment. For example, pollution, poorly ventilated homes, mold or pests increase the chance of developing chronic illnesses such as asthma. And Wyandotte County, with its 170,000 residents, consistently ranks last in the state for addressing these social determinants of health. Understanding the most common ailments a community faces, the conditions that exacerbate disease, and who suffers most, is key to providing the right care. Vibrant Health partnered with LivZero, a place-based, participatory research firm, and Greenlink Analytics to get some answers. The analysis utilized data from the Greenlink Equity Map, an interactive tool that illustrates the intersections of these inequities. The data was revealing. (The yellow-highlighted census tracts indicate strong relationships between racial composition (percent Latinx/Hispanic) and a lack of health insurance.) Black and Latine/x communities in Wyandotte face far higher hurdles to improving their health. Black communities have some of the highest rates of chronic health diseases, such as asthma, stroke, and diabetes throughout the entire county. Similarly, the Latine/x communities face larger mental health challenges and more limited access to healthcare. Geography plays an additional role in determining the health outcomes for communities, too. Nearly a quarter of Vibrant Health’s patients live in the two zip codes with the highest rates of health, socioeconomic, income and energy burden stress. “A pattern emerges from the analysis showing that just a couple of zip codes face an onslaught of challenges,” says Jellie Duckworth, director of Community Initiatives at Greenlink Analytics. “This can be due to an array of reasons, such as past unjust housing policies and environmental hazards nearby (such as superfund, industrial sites, or transportation thoroughfares) and worth further context and understanding.” Knowing the problem is half the solution. This analysis, along with future inclusive research and community engagement, will help determine needs of this area, how to effectively promote health equity, and how to have the best impact on improving health outcomes for Vibrant Health’s patients and Wyandotte’s residents at large. Whether it’s establishing minor housing repair programs for residents to make homes healthier and mitigate displacement, prioritizing neighborhoods vulnerable to pollution from superfund sites, or investing in local businesses to enable economic growth, health spans boundaries and requires dynamic solutions. In this way, Vibrant Health hopes to address the root issues that affect health instead of tackling an endless stream of symptoms, and boost health across Wyandotte County.

As the year comes to an end, we want to reflect on what has been done over the past 12 months and what’s to come in the new year. Throughout the year, climate change continued to be one of the hottest topics this year, from record breaking heat to new federal climate policies and clean energy triumphs. Climate solutions need a people-centered approach to ensure best outcomes for everyone. While climate change is a global challenge, not all communities bear the brunt equally. In the U.S., non-white and lower income communities experience the greatest health, economic and environmental risks. If the solutions don’t embrace and uphold these communities, we won’t achieve the decarbonized future we need - and in that case, they’re not real solutions. Cities and communities all over the country have been leading the real work on climate policy for years. Those efforts are getting a massive boost from the Federal government now through a series of major investments and initiatives. Foremost in our minds is the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022, a huge climate win signed into law in August. The IRA invests $369 billion in clean energy projects and incentives for energy-efficient technologies such as heat pumps and electric vehicles. It also includes historic investments in environmental justice and economic development, calling for several new grant and incentive programs focused on righting past wrongs. And we’re here for it. We are helping cities and organizations across the country learn about the funding opportunities coming available and how our Greenlink Equity Map can guide the distribution of these funds. Backing out to the global scale, investment in wind and solar power is outpacing the billions of dollars spent on electricity from fossil fuels for the first time ever, with global renewable power set to pass coal as the biggest source of electricity generation by 2025. The clean energy transition is happening, folks. Our daily work ensures that it takes place as intentionally and as promptly as possible. These trends formed the backdrop to some of the largest projects we’ve worked on this past year. Here’s a few to remember: · After three and a half years of work, Bloomberg Philanthropies-funded American Cities Climate Challenge came to a close. The Climate Challenge cities’ total emissions reductions surpassed the target of the Paris Climate Agreement.We analyzed the energy burdens and correlated inequitable outcomes for all 25 cities, assisted with policy and program analysis in most of them, and kept track of progress for the entire effort. We built new state of the art energy analysis programs and assisted with programs that will reduce childhood asthma from vehicle exhaust, create thousands of good-paying, high road jobs, and make energy affordable for all while simultaneously cutting emissions. What. A. Rush. · Our GEM Community of Practice told us what they needed to see in order to make better progress on their equity initiatives and we went to work. GEM 2.0 launched with an improved user interface, new color schemes and correlational graphs, and new datasets. Two new novel datasets were deployed within the mapping tool - Urban Heat Index and Urban Tree Canopy, and more are still to come. · We’re deep into the development of Better Power - the first-of-its-kind energy generation and carbon intensity forecasting tool using high-resolution hourly data to compare the investments, job creation, and public health impacts of various clean energy scenarios with business-as-usual trajectories. High resolution on the temporal and geographic aspects of energy use arekey to making carbon accounting more effective and accurate - we often correct errors that exceed 30%. Hourly, localized information is the path to the future we need. In 2023, we see tremendous opportunities to collaborate and enable the most significant community-driven, data informed energy action that has ever happened in this country because of the significant set-up work done in 2022. The historical focus on disproportionate burden will remain central and important, but new stories of job creation, local economic development, improving health outcomes, and first-of-their-kind initiatives to realize more just and fair outcomes are there for the making. We’ll see you changemakers out there in the new year!

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.” ~ Anonymous Trees evolved over hundreds of millions of years to retain water, absorb pollution, provide shade, and prevent erosion, making them excellent at reducing climate change in cities. Yet not all urban tree canopies are created equal. Many cities around the country have tree-planting programs, however, the programs and distribution of trees can be spotty, leaving some neighborhoods without trees to absorb the heat refracting off streets, sidewalks, and buildings. Understanding who’s protected by trees and who isn’t provides insights into human wellbeing and stressors. On November 14, Greenlink Analytics launched a new novel dataset "Urban Tree Canopy,” a tool that allows users to see the distribution of trees across city neighborhoods. The tool is part of the Greenlink Equity Map, which already measures urban heat islands among more than 30 other environmental and social disparities. The tool’s sophisticated interface not only helps reveal tree cover, but also the relationship between tree cover and other inequities. “People are suffering unnecessarily,” says Sharanya Madhavan, data scientist and team lead and creator of Greenlink’s Urban Tree Canopy tool. “Understanding the intersections between trees, heat, health, and energy are really important.” [City of Atlanta skyline and the Urban Tree Canopy map] The Greenlink team undertook a detailed analysis combined with machine learning techniques to evaluate the percent of urban tree canopy across all metro areas in the United States. The data relied on satellite imagery from the summer season on cloudless days. All images were captured at 10am with a single map pixel representing a 30-meter squared swath of land. In this way the team provided a high-resolution, detailed analysis of 378 metro areas with a greater than 90 percent accuracy.. The aim was to provide a tree canopy score – based on percentage - across area codes to reveal the inequitable distribution of risks across different populations within the same urban area. For example, in Baltimore, Md., one neighborhood has an energy burden of 22 percent and zero percent tree canopy cover, while another has a one percent energy burden and 54 percent tree cover. This way people could start answering questions like, where are the neighborhoods with fewer trees and what’s the relationship between lack of tree coverage and also suffering from high heat intensity, high energy bills, and high asthma rates. The GEM tool allows users to see these stats in visual and granular detail. “A lot of city planners are working hard to understand what policies and programs can alleviate urban heat islands as part of larger policy,” says Madhavan. “Understanding the data is the first step towards change. The second step is knowing where to channel funding. Research shows that planting trees in low-income, nonwhite communities can begin reducing the inequities related to tree cover, heat, and energy bills. The simple act of planting trees has an impressive capacity to mitigate climate change, improve inequities, and boost wellbeing. _____________________________________

Movement and migration exist at the roots of American culture. Finding a new place to live can mean increased choices, opportunities, and upward mobility. It’s a very different story when someone is forced from their home. Residents in historically Black and Brown neighborhoods too often face a Hobson’s choice when prices rise in their communities: stay, though it’s unaffordable, or leave, despite the lack of housing. The results are that communities dismantle, cultures dissolve, demographics change, and people suffer. Displacement is an epidemic in America. While a common part of the modern vernacular, the drivers are blurry and poorly understood. Nonetheless, the causes and their potential remedies are at the forefront of many conversations Greenlink has with cities and organizations. The most well-known factors are household income and non-white communities. But there’s much more happening below the surface. People’s everyday lives - small stressors exacerbated through historical prejudices – have large implications on neighborhoods and why they change cultures and separate communities. These deserve to be better understood. Greenlink recently analyzed many social determinants that may increase the threat of neighborhood turnover and displacement. These include redlining, high housing costs, energy burden, household incomes, energy use, and mental health. We focused on Atlanta, San Francisco, and Chicago based on their diverse demographics, weather conditions, and impact of historical policies. Data was gathered at the census tract level from numerous sources and required a different level of preparation for each city to better understand the impact and trends in a local context. We used advanced machine learning to evaluate these trends and predict the key drivers of displacement, along with their significance within the city and their ranking. These key drivers were further studied with an in-depth correlational analysis to explore their relationship with health issues within their respective cities. What we discovered may surprise you. Energy burden is prevalent across all three cities. Yup, the relative cost of electricity and gas bills directly affects whether a person can remain in their home, neighborhood, and community, or are forced to move. And, unfortunately, mental health frequently declines as energy burdens increase, according to the data. San Francisco and Atlanta specifically showed migration patterns, or people moving into the city from outside, as connected to displacement. In Chicago, its housing costs and number of single family homes, education levels, and redlining were dominant. And each city in the U.S. has a different set of factors influencing displacement, making it critical to study the local context and not rely on a one-size-fits-all solution, or simply borrow policies from other jurisdictions. It's vital to understand and address these factors to prevent people being forced out of their communities. Each community should be addressed individually and based on their needs and assets. For example, if the City of Atlanta channeled some of its funds into areas with highest energy burdens, as shown by our mapping tool, energy efficiency and burden would improve, which would also reduce some of the pressures on housing affordability. But to really understand these relationships, we must go beyond data and computer models and bring the policy makers and people experiencing the pressures of displacement in real time to develop a path forward together. In this way, the data becomes a tool for further understanding and hopefully long-rooted communities. Citation: Mantripragada, M., Sharanya Madhavan, Samantha McDonald, Diamond Spratling, Kavin Manickaraj, and Matt Cox. “Driving Displacement: Energy, Social, and Environmental Determinants’ Roles in Urban Gentrification.” 2022 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings.

Tackling climate change is a beast. Doing so in an inclusive and just way so that everyone benefits from a clean energy transition is crucial, and tough. Mostly because it’s a new way of thinking about systems change. Nevertheless, that’s the question at heart of Chicago’s most recent climate action plan: what does an equitable climate strategy look like? On the one hand, there’s the existential issue of lowering greenhouse gas emissions to prevent the worst impacts and contributing to the solution. On the other, any of the necessary changes, such as transitioning to a cleaner grid and implementing energy efficiency measures, will impact individuals and their wallets. The critical question is how. “In Chicago, we must be sensitive to all sides of the issue since our city is large and so economically diverse,” says Kyra Woods, policy advisor on climate and environment for Chicago. “We’ve made a commitment to the Paris Agreement and to actively advancing justice and racial equity. Therefore, we need to proactively ensure that our policies benefit residents who feel the burdens of current systems and impacts - even if those residents don’t traditionally discuss them as climate or sustainability impacts.” Taking climate action is no longer uncommon for large U.S. cities. Cities are highly vulnerable to heat, storms, flooding and pollution. As central hubs of economic activity, they are major drivers of greenhouse gas emissions, but they also have the benefit of more flexible, responsive, community-focused policy instruments through which to address the problem. By the start of 2022, 35 of the 50 largest cities in the U.S. had adopted local climate action plans. A while back it was believed that Chicago would escape the worst effects of climate change. But that’s not holding up to scrutiny. A recent IPCC report says the city won’t be able to hide from extreme weather. Precipitation, flooding, extreme heat and declining air quality are on the rise. These raise the health, safety, and economic risk for the city’s 2.7 million residents, especially those who already struggle. “What we do know is that changing climate is a force multiplier on some of the burdens people feel” says Woods, “A key part of developing Chicago’s climate action plan was not hoping for equitable distribution of benefits. Instead, we sought to create goals that were clear about the intent.” Equity is not a singular box that can be checked; it’s about an iterative process that seeks to repair, restore, and improve. "If the climate action plan doesn’t intentionally address legacy issues through policy or tend to the people who have historically been left out, then we’re not evening the playing field,” explains Woods. That means more than just transitioning to clean renewables. It means ensuring that the energy transition serves as an economic opportunity and makes new technologies accessible to all people. That’s where the Greenlink Equity Map (GEM) comes in handy. “GEM allowed us to see this world of data on a single map,” says Woods. “In part you have to look behind the data – then you start to see overlapping lines of inequities.” For example, communities that have long experienced disinvestment may have an abundance of gray infrastructure for trucks, cars, or rail, but may not have well developed green infrastructure like trees or stormwater infrastructure. The area may experience greater heat during the summer and greater flooding, while also having higher utility bills and greater health burdens from various compounding environmental burdens. For the first time in nearly 30 years, Chicago is currently revamping its franchise agreement with Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) for electricity delivery. The city sees an opportunity for a more sustainable future grounded in equity. The GEM data can support the prioritization of areas for more coordinated outreach. Placing support in these communities will change the map for the better. On Aug. 8, Chicago announced a five-year agreement with Constellation Energy to purchase 100 percent renewable energy for all city-owned facilities and operations by 2025. This will help Chicago meet its climate action plan goal of a 62 percent carbon emissions reduction by 2040. “I believe the 2022 Climate Action Plan is a step in the right direction,” says Woods. “The urgency of the issue can feel daunting, but we are living through an era of transformation that can bring about unity, wellbeing, and vitality.”

Climate change regulations have been making big headlines lately. Near the end of June, the Supreme Court issued a decision limiting the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) power to cap carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants. A couple weeks later, the Senate passed a long-stalled federal climate bill that aims to dramatically reduce national greenhouse gas emissions. Despite these ups and downs in the news cycle, we at Greenlink want to take a step back, provide some history behind the decisions, explain how they’ll impact city and state climate work, and reiterate that the clean energy transition can’t — and won’t — stop. The actions that lead to better outcomes happen on the ground, in local communities. But first, let’s set the scene for these new policies. Back in 2015, the countries of the world (192 countries plus the European Union) adopted the Paris Agreement with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to prevent the worst impacts of climate change (read: extreme storms, heat waves, and droughts and the resulting social stresses they would cause). The U.S. pledged to lower its emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. The Obama Administration developed the Clean Power Plan as the country’s main tool for reaching these goals since it allowed the EPA to set state limits for greenhouse gases from power plants. It created incentives to use clean energy options like energy efficiency to achieve the regulatory targets. But the plan never took effect. Action at the federal level continued to stall. Jump forward seven years to June’s Supreme Court decision – which landed like a sucker punch. What the court did was revisit the already defunct Clean Power Plan, taking issue with how EPA would have regulated power sources and their emissions under the plan. Only Congress has the power to make such consequential decisions, said the ruling, which meant the Clean Power Plan was once and for all buried and dead. That said, hope is not lost. The good news, explains Frank Rambo, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, is that the decision does not affect the basic authority or responsibility of EPA to regulate greenhouse gases. The EPA can still set emissions limits based on available technologies, possibly like carbon capture and storage. So, in a state like West Virginia, with deep connections to the fossil fuel industry, they would still have to reduce emissions, but they wouldn’t have to retire their coal-fired electric power plants if those plants could hit carbon performance targets. And it’s worth noting that the cost of renewables will make them attractive even for states like West Virginia. “The primary action on clean energy and climate will continue to be at the state and regional level,” assures Rambo, “Yet, this progress could receive a boost if Congress and the President sets a national CO2 limit.” On Friday, August 12, 2022 – more than three decades since scientists first warned about climate change – the U.S. passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, committing the country to 40 percent emissions reductions by 2030. It is the country’s most ambitious climate change bill, and can help direct funding and resources in the right direction. Solar and wind power will become cheaper. Electric vehicles and infrastructure will possibly surge. And opportunities for environmental justice victories will come forward. For Greenlink, this means the neighborhoods and cities we work with should have greater access to affordable, clean energy options. It means healthier neighborhoods and cities. It means a more equitable future. It means we’re a big step closer to a clean and more just world. “I recently looked at the latest numbers from U.S. Energy Information Administration, and levels CO2 emissions have gone down 50 percent in the power sector in the six southern states that SELC covers (traditionally fossil-fuel dependent) in 15 years between 2005 to 2020,” says Rambo. “We’re not going to get next 50 percent the same way; it does give me hope we will get it done.”

For Immediate Release URBAN HEAT INDEX Heat’s Uneven Hold on City Neighborhoods [Atlanta, Georgia, July 28, 2022] — It’s not always cool to be hot. That’s particularly true in some city neighborhoods around the country where heat stalls forming an even hotter pocket known as an urban heat island. Take, for example, the highly diverse and densely populated neighborhood of Alief in Southwest Houston. Alief’s nighttime temperatures in July average 82 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to the city’s overall average of 79.4 degrees. The higher temperatures can raise energy bills, levels of air pollution, and heat-related illnesses in a neighborhood already struggling with high asthma rates and energy burdens. That’s why Greenlink Analytics recently developed a new and novel data set examining Urban Heat Intensity for the country’s largest metro areas. “Our Urban Heat Index translates a census tract’s temperatures into a severity score from 1 to 10 relative to other tracts in the city," says Sharanya Madhavan, lead data scientist for Greenlink’s Urban Heat Index project. “By looking at different temperatures, we can better understand the urban heat island effect, identify the neighborhoods disproportionately affected by heat, and begin to see the relationship between heat and other burdens.” The average Urban Heat Intensity score in Houston is 5.9. Alief’s is 10, meaning it has a high heat island effect and is disproportionately hotter than other neighborhoods around them. Here’s how we arrived at that number. Greenlink Analytics utilized satellite imagery to capture nighttime temperature for the 379 largest metropolitan areas in the United States down to the resolution of one square kilometer. Temperatures were analyzed for the hottest months of the year – May through August. It’s the next step of scrutiny that sets the data apart. Greenlink analyzed temperature gaps from month to month to pinpoint the month with the largest heat disparities in each city. In Houston, it’s July. In Atlanta it’s May. In Denver it’s August. The goal was to assess the disparities in heat burdens, says Madhavan, since the data shows people having very different experiences related to heat within the same city and month. The month with the highest temperature differential was then converted to a heat intensity score using a percentile system. This allows each city to better understand how any neighborhood compares to others. Urban heat islands form when cities cover land with buildings, concrete, asphalt, and other solid surfaces in population dense places. These hardscapes absorb the sun’s heat during the day and refract it at night, keeping the area hotter than normal. Low-income neighborhoods are frequently hotter than wealthier ones due to systemic differences in the way the communities are designed, developed, and maintained. Relevant data is vital for addressing the disproportionate burden heat can cause. The Urban Heat Index data set will launch inside the Greenlink Equity Map the first week of August 2022. For more information: Robynne Boyd, Communications Manager, Greenlink Analytics, (415) 516-7625, rboyd@greenlinkanalytics.org

July 28, 2022 Summer in Houston, Texas, is hot. Average temperatures measure slightly warmer than in Death Valley, making it one of the hottest places in America. While no one’s making it through a Houston summer without sweating, some residents suffer more than others because heat stalls in their neighborhood forming an even hotter pocket known as an urban heat island. Take, for example, the highly diverse and densely populated neighborhood of Alief in Southwest Houston. Alief’s nighttime temperatures in July average 82 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to the city’s overall average of 79.4 degrees. The higher temperatures can raise energy bills, levels of air pollution, and heat-related illnesses in a neighborhood already struggling with high asthma rates and energy burdens. That’s why Greenlink Analytics recently developed a new and novel data set examining Urban Heat Intensity for the country’s largest metro areas. “Our Urban Heat Index translates a census tract’s temperatures into a severity score from 1 to 10 relative to other tracts in the city," says Sharanya Madhavan, lead data scientist for Greenlink’s UHI project. “By looking at different temperatures, we can better understand the urban heat island effect, identify the neighborhoods disproportionately affected by heat, and begin to see the relationship between heat and other burdens.” The average Urban Heat Intensity score in Houston is 5.9. Alief’s is 10, meaning it has a high heat island effect and is disproportionately hotter than other neighborhoods around them. Here’s how we arrived at that number. Greenlink Analytics utilized satellite imagery to capture nighttime temperature for the 379 largest [Image: Urban Heat Index for Houston] metropolitan areas in the United States down to the resolution of one square kilometer. Temperatures were analyzed for the hottest months of the year – May through August.. It’s the next step of scrutiny that sets the data apart. Greenlink analyzed temperature gaps from month to month to pinpoint the month with the largest heat disparities in each city. In Houston, it’s July. In Atlanta it’s May. In Denver it’s August. The goal was to assess the disparities in heat burdens, says Madhavan, since the data shows people having very different experiences related to heat within the same city and month. The month with the highest temperature differential was then converted to a heat intensity score using a percentile system. This allows each city to better understand how any neighborhood compares to others. “This data can help inform policies that reduce heat islands and alleviate the cascade of burdens that accompany extreme heat, such high energy burden and asthma rates, making life harder to handle and bear,” says Madhavan. Many city neighborhoods across the country have a high heat island effect. Urban heat islands form when cities cover land with buildings, concrete, asphalt, and other solid surfaces in population dense places. These hardscapes absorb the sun’s heat during the day and refract it at night, keeping the area hotter than normal. Low-income neighborhoods are frequently hotter than wealthier ones due to systemic differences in the way the communities are designed, developed, and maintained. Relevant data is vital for addressing the disproportionate burden heat can cause. The Urban Heat Intensity data set will launch inside the Greenlink Equity Map the first week of August 2022.

June 21, 2022 [Photo courtesy of Sustainable Columbus] A few years ago, the City of Columbus, Ohio, decided to take a good hard look at their energy grid — a labyrinth of cables and pipes powered primarily by coal, natural gas, and nuclear power. Like many municipalities across the country, a reliance on fossil fuels brought the climate crisis to their doorstep, and it became clear change was needed. Between 1951 to 2021, average temperatures in Columbus warmed by 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit, the growing season extended 26 days, precipitation rose about 20 percent, and heavy rain events increased 42 percent, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Punishing heat, poorer air quality, and more frequent and severe flooding harm local economies and the health and wellbeing of everyone. However, residents facing socio-economic hardship bear the heaviest burdens. The city pivoted. In 2021, the city launched Clean Energy Columbus, an electric aggregation program procuring 100 percent renewable energy for residents and small businesses powered by all Ohio wind and solar by 2025. The program clusters customers to decrease costs, and includes a community grant that comes back to the city for reinvestment into sustainability and communities most vulnerable to climate change. Emissions are expected to decline by 1.4 million metric tons, or the equivalent of taking about 300,000 cars off the road, says its website. “When starting the Clean Energy Columbus program, we wanted to know how we reinvest these funds into neighborhoods that are hit hardest by climate change,” said Erin Beck, Assistant Sustainability Officer, Sustainable Columbus, “With the help of our Aggregation Advisory Group, we knew we wanted to focus on residential energy efficiency and energy burden and analyzed specific area codes using the Greenlink Equity Map to identify our highest opportunity neighborhoods and which measures would be most effective.” Opportunity neighborhoods, as they are referred to by the City of Columbus, are disadvantaged communities (typically low-income and Indigenous, Black, Latine, and other systemically oppressed communities) within the city who have frequently been left behind by previous policies. These neighborhoods include Linden, Franklinton, Hilltop, and Near East in addition to several others. The mapping tool, added Beck, helps cut the data, be most efficient, and target where we should be investing. Not only was the City able to understand how to reduce energy burden in those areas through energy efficiency measures, it also helped make the case for additional funding for energy efficiency, along with help from IMPACT Community Action, a non-profit focused on eliminating poverty. Funding from the city support’s work by the non-profit to undertake energy efficiency measures in homes through expansion of weatherization programming, installing updated appliances, and the launch of Empowered! – a clean energy jobs program for young Columbus residents. “Ideally, it makes residents' homes more comfortable to live in and reduces energy bills,” says Beck. “We have our Columbus Climate action plan with a goal of being carbon neutral by 2050, with a 20 percent residential energy efficiency reduction by 2030. The two climate hazards impacting Columbus most are rising temperatures and increased precipitation. Making progress on climate change to reduce and adapt to these hazards through data informed efforts reduces the harmful health and economic impacts climate change is having on disadvantaged people. It increases the ability to support environmental justice. That’s why the City is working to co-create with the community the Greenlink supported Equity Index. The Equity Index is an additional feature on the equity mapping tool that provides a grading system so governments and communities can rate progress on key indicators such as energy burden, asthma rates, affordability of housing, or other equity issues. Environmental justice and good data go hand in hand. Columbus is taking another step towards this brighter future.

June 6, 2022 Small changes make big differences. That’s the mantra of Daniel Wagner, project coordinator for Westown Community Development Corporation (WCDC), a small non-profit agency focused on boosting the lives of the approximately 7,000 Westown residents in City of Cleveland’s 11th ward. In a community where approximately 60 percent of residents live below the Federal Poverty Level, a new energy-efficient fridge can mean the difference between paying or failing to pay the electricity bill. Building a new, sturdy porch can reduce the chances of a senior resident getting hurt or falling. Installing a new furnace can mean finally having a warm home in winter. “Not having heat can end you,” says Wagner. “My hope is that by helping revitalize the neighborhood through things like home improvements and getting people more energy efficient homes, we can cut down on how much power people are using, which can eliminate some of that burden and make people’s lives easier.” In 2021, the WCDC happened upon the Greenlink Equity Map, a.k.a. GEM, through work with the City of Cleveland. Wagner’s background in mapping helped him recognize the tool’s ability to eliminate the usually arduous process of digging up and organizing data. What once took hours to days, now would take minutes, explained Wagner. “It has been a game changer for me when you need quick data,” Wagner added. Greenlink Analytics provided WCDC free access to GEM through its grants program focusing on small nonprofits working to advance equity. Wagner uses the tool for many of the organization’s programs, including the weatherization project that modifies residential homes to reduce energy consumption and optimize energy efficiency. Wagner targeted the neighborhoods where energy burden and income stress were highest and determined which homes most needed to be weatherized. The organization then uses a third party with a list of contractors to do home repairs, replace appliances, install new electrical boxes, update AC units and windows, and many other improvements that reduce bills, increase efficiency, and make life easier. Eighty two households have gone through the program under Wagners’s guidance, a process that takes approximately 6-9 months. “Our previous old furnace was a giant energy cost burden on my family,” says Westown resident Pamela Rose. “Our new, energy efficient one has helped lower our bills and better heat our house and we would have never been able to replace it without the weatherization program.” Wagner also utilizes GEM for other programs, such as a collaboration with Clevelawn, a company helping returning citizens learn carpentry, which provides up to $2,000 in repair for low income people and families. The data has also helped WCDC negotiate on behalf of the community for the city-wide Internet for All initiative, because good data tells a compelling and undeniable story. [Before and after photo of a home in Westown, courtesty of WCDC] This is the epitome of thinking big, but starting small. “I work in the micro,” says Wagner. “These folks matter as much as in the richer neighborhood. If we are to be an equal society, everyone deserves a chance.”

May 9, 2022 Maps have helped people navigate the world for thousands of years, showing us where we want to go and how to get there. The new Greenlink Equity Map, or GEM 2.0, serves the same purpose. The state-of-the-art mapping tool tells a dynamic story about how energy decisions affect quality of life in communities around the country, and guides them towards cleaner, low-carbon options to ensure a healthier, more just world. “People across the U.S. experience large variations in how policies affect health, housing and climate,” says Jellie Duckworth, Greenlink Analytics GEM Strategic Development Manager. “Being able to see the distribution of burdens across communities, especially for the people most affected by climate change but who contribute least to the problem, serves as a starting point for charting a new course. That’s the power of GEM 2.0.” Like any map, GEM helps take people from point A to B. Over 180 cities and eight states across the U.S. already have goals to power their communities with 100 percent renewable energy to avoid the most harmful effects of climate change. These commitments are the first step in a longer journey to the clean energy transition. Unfortunately, historically marginalized communities tend to bear the brunt of climate change. On the ground, this looks like higher asthma rates, a larger percentage of income spent on electricity and gas bills, less efficient homes, more pollution, warmer neighborhoods, and limited transportation options. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions will help mitigate these outsized burdens and transform communities for the better. Take the City of Atlanta, for example, which used the tool to understand which neighborhoods bear the weight of disproportionate energy bills. The information helped create policies that strategically funnel funds into energy improvements and weatherization, which also helped the city make strides towards being powered by 100 percent renewable energy by 2035. GEM 2.0 will enable any city, community-based organization, or state to dive even deeper into the challenges and opportunities climate change presents in their communities. These will include variations in tree cover, transportation burden, and temperature variation within cities (aka urban heat islands). “Heat islands contribute to increased energy bills, health issues, and hotter temperatures, often experienced in some neighborhoods more than others,” says Greenlink Data Scientist Sharanya Madhavan. “When combining heat and tree canopy data with other indicators in GEM, we can understand who within our cities is at higher risk of extreme heat and set out to alleviate these heat related burdens.” One of the tool’s most requested innovations is the ability to create an equity index, or grading system so governments and communities can rate progress on energy burden, asthma rates, affordability of housing, or other equity issues. This technology is being piloted in 2022. The map also updates data for almost all of the existing 37 equity measures for 2019 and expands data tracking back to 2013 so people can see how local conditions change over time. The upshot is that robust data helps spur strong policies for our communities, environment, and health. So, grab our new map, which goes live May 23, 2002, and start your journey towards clean energy for all.

As of December 2021, The City of Savannah adopted the 100% Savannah Clean Energy Plan which provides a roadmap for meeting the community-wide clean energy targets they adopted in March of 2020. Recognizing the importance of a fast decarbonization of our economy, the City Council commits to 100% safe, clean, and renewable electricity by 2035 and 100% safe, clean, and renewable energy for all other uses (e.g. transportation, heating, and industry) by 2050. The equity data and analysis for these clean energy targets was done using GEM and other Greenlink Analytics methodologies. Additionally, the City Council committed to using this transition as an opportunity to address historical inequities in the community across Savannah prioritizing a just and equitable clean energy transition. As the City invests in workforce training, renewable energy installations, energy efficiency programs, and clean transportation, priority will be shown to frontline, fence-line, low-income, and minority communities. According to our analysis, Savannah used just over 2 million MWh of electricity in 2018. Under business-as-usual conditions, that is expected to increase slightly to 2.16 million MWh by 2035, due to population growth, economic development, and a modest trend toward using electricity instead of fuel. The GEM platform has also already informed two grant applications for the City of Savannah: The first grant application requested $3.5 million from Georgia’s State Fiscal Recovery Fund in the category for addressing the negative economic impacts of Covid-19. This proposed project is to complete pre-weatherization home repairs in homes in the 12 most energy burdened census tracts in Savannah. If the City receives this funding, their most energy burdened citizens will have access to the support they need to take advantage of free energy efficiency services through their utility provider. The second grant application that GEM informed also requests funding from the State Fiscal Recovery Fund’s negative economic impact category. Unlike the first application, this one was written in coalition with the City of Atlanta and several environmental non-profits to support deployment of solar in low-income communities as part of the combined Savannah-Atlanta Solarize campaign. If approved, this funding will support job training in both solar and energy efficiency, fully or partially subsidized solar deployment, and critical pre-solarization repairs like roof replacements. In addition to supporting future grant applications, GEM will play a crucial role in informing the City of Savannah’s investments and program implementation going forward. “Per the Council resolution, we are deeply committed to ensuring that our clean energy transition redresses historical inequities, reduces energy burdens, and creates meaningful economic benefits for frontline communities. This work already has been and will continue to be made easier with the data provided by GEM.” - Alicia Brown- Energy Analyst, Savannah Office of Sustainability Image: Energy Burden and Key sourced from 100% Savannah Clean Energy Plan For more information about this story contact Alicia Brown at Alicia.Brown@savannahga.gov