{"673567":{"#nid":"673567","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Civic Data Analysis Finds New Opportunity for Federal Energy Efficiency Initiatives ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA new study by Associate Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/spp.gatech.edu\/people\/person\/omar-isaac-asensio\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EOmar Isaac Asensio\u003C\/a\u003E and a team of students in Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Public Policy finds that federal housing policies accelerate energy efficiency participation among low- and moderate-income\u0026nbsp;households \u2014 even when those policies don\u2019t directly address energy efficiency.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41893-024-01314-w\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EThe research\u003C\/a\u003E, published in \u003Cem\u003ENature Sustainability\u003C\/em\u003E, shows how community development block grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) generated an average of 5% to 11% energy savings in economically burdened households in Albany. The savings equate to the cost of roughly two months of groceries per household per year.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022These housing participants who didn\u0027t come in thinking about energy efficiency saved anywhere from $75 to $482 per year in energy bills,\u0022 Asensio said. \u0022Those are meaningful savings that really impact people. So, we ended up finding very significant hidden social benefits from these policies that were previously unknown.\u0022\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003Ehttps:\/\/youtu.be\/eWqOFj9qRxw\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe findings are surprising because HUD grants do not specifically target energy efficiency or sustainability measures in exchange for governmental assistance. Instead, they are given at the discretion of the local government to residents facing housing emergencies such as deteriorating roofs or broken HVAC systems in the hot summer.\u0026nbsp;Because of the high amount of deferred maintenance in these homes, the fixes have a spillover effect of significantly reducing energy use \u2014 for example, by adopting more efficient technologies and bringing structures up to building codes \u2014 and saving money for people who receive them.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe multidisciplinary research team in Asensio\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/datasciencepolicy.gatech.edu\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EData Science \u0026amp; Policy Lab,\u003C\/a\u003E including current and former Public Policy students Olga Churkina and Becky D. Rafter and industrial engineering alumna Kira E. O\u0027Hare, also found that the cost-effectiveness of housing-based interventions rivals standalone energy efficiency policies, offering a promising alternative for reaching marginalized communities.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022For decades, we\u2019ve struggled to get meaningful participation with conventional policies in these lower and moderate-income communities, including among renters and people in multi-family homes,\u201d Asensio said. \u0022Using housing block grants as an entry strategy to drive efficiency\u0026nbsp;is an important policy innovation.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWith support from the National Science Foundation, ESRI, Inc., and the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge, Asensio and his co-authors spent nearly four years collecting, cleaning, and combining Albany\u0027s previously siloed city data into one community analytics repository. They linked records for 5.9 million utility bills per month from 2004 to 2019, allowing them to see long-run impacts of policy intervention, energy consumption, and payments by household \u2014 an uncommonly granular level of data.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Overall, HUD-funded block grants in Albany reduced electricity use by 4.72 million kilowatt hours over the study period versus the control group,\u0022 the researchers wrote. \u0022The reduction in non-baseload emissions is equivalent to 3.70 million pounds of coal not being burned or the carbon sequestered by 3,695 acres of forest.\u0022\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAsensio\u0027s research is timely because the Southeast has some of the country\u0027s highest energy-burdened households. In the U.S., spending over 6% of net income on energy is considered a burden. In Albany, renters\u0027 and homeowners\u0027 energy costs can surpass ten or even 20% of household budgets, Asensio said, and many housing applicants are elderly and on fixed incomes. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EUnlike conventional energy initiatives that are reliant on self-selection, housing programs can provide a more equitable and localized strategy. That\u0027s because \u0022most of the standalone policies for energy efficiency have two main outcomes,\u0022 Asensio said. \u0022First, the programs generally attract more affluent and informed homeowners, in which case, questions arise as to whether this might be a good use of public funds. Second, when these policies are restricted to certain income eligibility limits, we don\u0027t get enough participation from lower-income residents for a long list of reasons. So, reaching low- and moderate-income households has become a fundamental challenge.\u0022\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn contrast, housing block grants naturally target a broader range of residents with high energy burdens and help circumvent the problem of low participation. Rather than trying to market an energy-saving offer to people who aren\u0027t interested or are distrustful of the government, HUD grants have long waiting lists.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022There are thousands and thousands of communities that look very much like Albany within and outside of major metro areas,\u201d Asensio said. \u0022This is a relatively untapped opportunity for driving energy efficiency within households who may not necessarily have an awareness of or interest in energy efficiency measures.\u201d \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe paper, \u201cHousing Policies and Energy Efficiency Spillovers in Low and Moderate Income Communities,\u201d was published online in \u003C\/em\u003ENature Sustainability\u003Cem\u003E on March 18. It is available at \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41893-024-01314-w\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41893-024-01314-w\u003C\/a\u003E. This work was partially supported by awards from the National Science Foundation (Award No. 1945332), ESRI, Inc., the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge, and the Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society at Harvard Business School.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA new study from the School of Public Policy finds that federal housing policies accelerate energy efficiency participation among low- and moderate-income households \u2014 even when those policies don\u2019t directly address energy efficiency.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A new study from the School of Public Policy finds that federal housing policies accelerate energy efficiency participation among low and moderate-income households \u2014 even when those policies don\u2019t directly address energy efficiency.\u00a0"}],"uid":"35766","created_gmt":"2024-03-18 01:31:48","changed_gmt":"2024-03-22 14:22:04","author":"dminardi3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-03-18T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-03-18T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"672444":{"id":"672444","type":"image","title":"230830-SY-FacultyHeadshots-SYP_2894_OmarAsensio.jpeg","body":"\u003Cp\u003EOmar Asensio, GT Energy Research Faculty and HBS visiting fellow, Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","created":"1701091355","gmt_created":"2023-11-27 13:22:35","changed":"1701091355","gmt_changed":"2023-11-27 13:22:35","alt":"Omar Asensio, visiting fellow, Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society","file":{"fid":"255679","name":"230830-SY-FacultyHeadshots-SYP_2894_OmarAsensio.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/11\/27\/230830-SY-FacultyHeadshots-SYP_2894_OmarAsensio.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/11\/27\/230830-SY-FacultyHeadshots-SYP_2894_OmarAsensio.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":116824,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2023\/11\/27\/230830-SY-FacultyHeadshots-SYP_2894_OmarAsensio.jpeg?itok=L13IaHaD"}}},"media_ids":["672444"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1289","name":"School of Public Policy"}],"categories":[{"id":"131","name":"Economic Development and Policy"},{"id":"144","name":"Energy"},{"id":"151","name":"Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39531","name":"Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure"},{"id":"39511","name":"Public Service, Leadership, and Policy"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71901","name":"Society and Culture"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:dminardi3@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EDi Minardi\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nIvan Allen College of Liberal Arts\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["dminardi3@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}