Grantee Research Project Results
2024 Progress Report: Community-engaged Co-Design of Residential Electrification for a Just and Sustainable Energy Transition
EPA Grant Number: R840562Title: Community-engaged Co-Design of Residential Electrification for a Just and Sustainable Energy Transition
Investigators: Harper, Krista , Caverly, Nick , Barchers, Camille , Arku, Raphael , Baker, Erin D. , Krupczynski, Joseph , Shenoy, Prashant , Cardenas, Juan Camilo , Ash, Michael , Weil, Ben , Markowitz, Ezra
Institution: University of Massachusetts Amherst
EPA Project Officer: Chung, Serena
Project Period: September 1, 2023 through May 10, 2025
Project Period Covered by this Report: September 1, 2023 through August 31,2024
Project Amount: $1,111,418
RFA: Drivers and Environmental Impacts of Energy Transitions in Underserved Communities. (2022) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Watersheds , Endocrine Disruptors , Environmental Engineering , Environmental Justice , Social Science , Air Quality and Air Toxics , Air
Objective:
Our project seeks to understand how households and neighborhoods at the intersection of low- and moderate-income (LMI) groups and racialized identities (particularly Black and Latine communities) experience the 21st century energy transition (Mulvaney, 2020). We will build on this to rapidly develop a robust community-based participatory research (CBPR) platform for co-designing scalable solutions to the infrastructural challenge of full electrification of the nation’s housing system. We aim to improve environmental quality in environmental justice (EJ) communities through renewable energy transformation. Our proposal will do so first by understanding how systems-level factors drive individual and household electrification decisions in underserved communities. We will then translate those findings toward actionable and adaptable sociotechnical strategies for just and sustainable energy transitions that foster household and environmental health by meeting underserved communities’ energy needs.
Progress Summary:
In Year 1, the project made significant strides toward its objectives. To generate new knowledge on the interplay between housing and energy challenges, the team conducted 31 focus groups and collected data from 31 workshop activities, including cultural domain analysis freelists, participatory maps, and scenario diagrams. Additionally, the team completed 8 individual home study interviews, indoor air quality assessments, and energy audits and 2 participatory modeling pilot discussions. Progress toward creating a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) platform included the development and piloting of an Energy Justice Leaders CBPR toolkit, recruitment of 26 participants for the first cohort, and the successful launch of a 7-part workshop series, culminating in a broader community forum with 34 attendees. The project also advanced convergence across disciplines by establishing the Community Energy Lab, involving members from eight departments in weekly meetings. Community feedback informed home study protocols, while preliminary findings were shared through workshops, 4 research publications, and 8 presentations. These efforts collectively lay a strong foundation for future project phases.
Future Activities:
Continuing annually for the remainder of the research project, the team will produce (and compare to prior years) data on community perspectives on residential electrification and related issues, as well as data collection on air quality and building quality for the home study. In 2025, we plan to carry out the first round of participatory modeling sessions. We will build out our CBPR team with alumni of our 2024 Energy Justice Leaders program. We will recruit the 2025 cohort of the Energy Justice Leaders program and carry out a workshop series where we will collect CBPR data and initiate co-design of interventions. We will also hold a larger community forum where we engage community members and stakeholders in discussion of our initial findings. The team has submitted or plans to submit abstracts for six 2025 conference presentations and is processing data for planned peer-reviewed article submissions. We plan to publish the Energy Justice Leaders CBPR Toolkit in 2026 after refining the activities with the 2025 cohort of the Energy Justice Leaders program. The research team will continue to present their findings to academic and non-academic audiences and work on publishing the research in public-facing reports, senior honors theses, PhD dissertations, and peer-reviewed journal articles.
To date, the team has published four articles and given eight academic presentations related to the research project. Three graduate students on the team are currently working on PhD dissertations drawing upon project data. An undergraduate on the team is preparing a senior honors thesis based on project data. We have a draft of the Energy Justice Leaders CBPR Toolkit and are working to publish it in 2026 after refining the techniques with the second cohort of the Energy Justice Leaders program. Drafts of these documents are in progress.
Journal Articles on this Report : 2 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other project views: | All 4 publications | 2 publications in selected types | All 2 journal articles |
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Castro-Diaz L, Nwadiaru OV, Roque A, Caverly N, Kenner A, Harper K. Participatory research in energy justice:guiding principles and practice. Progress in Energy. 2024;6(3):033005. |
R840562 (2024) |
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Bates A, Nwadiaru OV, Goldstein A, Cantor J, Cowan M, Shokooh MP, Harper K. Whose low-carbon future? Community perceptions and expectations on the renewable energy transition in a post-industrial city. Energy Research & Social Science. 2024;118:103781. |
R840562 (2024) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
Underserved communities - per EPA request of applications: “populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, that have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life, including people of color, low income, rural, tribal, indigenous, and other populations that may be disproportionately impacted by environmental harms and risks.”Relevant Websites:
Holyoke Community Energy Project Exit
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.