Building retrofits improve the energy efficiency of our existing building stock through structural repairs, renovations, and appliances. Retrofit activities can include window and door replacements, wall insulation and air sealing, or installing high-efficiency water heaters and heating/cooling systems, and can be applied to all types of buildings. (Benefits of Actions to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Toronto)

Top Level Questions:

1. What are you trying to achieve with this action?

• Reduce vulnerability to energy and carbon price increases over time
• Remove cash flow barrier to advancing work and participating in incentive programs
• Contribute to local economic development by using local suppliers and labour (retrofit costs contribute to local economic development and job creation)
• Direct job creation via retrofit audits, energy advisors, retrofit installation, and administration
• Indirect job creation via logistics, appliance and building materials manufacturing
• Provide easier ability to shelter in place, greater resilience to power outages and extreme weather events, and energy security during emergencies
• Reduce energy poverty
• Improve physical and mental health by reducing outdoor and indoor air pollutants and reducing noise
• Advance resilience and mitigation simultaneously

2. Who has traditionally participated in/benefitted from this action?

• Traditional retrofit programs have often relied on incentives to drive uptake, which require that property owners have access to cash flow that can enable them to pay for the upgrades upfront and receive the incentive later
  • Therefore, retrofit programs have often been used by people with higher income, not by those most in need of the program (those experiencing energy poverty)

3. What groups are most in need of this action?

• Lower-income residents and those experiencing energy poverty who do not have the cash flow capacity to participate in incentive programs
• Non-English speaking residents who may not know what retrofit opportunities exist and are not included in educational/awareness initiatives
• Vulnerable communities with more pressing priorities (e.g., people with disabilities, single-parent households, multi-generational families)

4. What has prevented these groups from participating in the past?

• High up-front costs
• Lack of multilingual services
• Lack of awareness around retrofit options (due to insufficient educational initiatives)
  

5. What design can address barriers from those most in need of action or to increase participation? Barriers can be physical or perceived (perceptual/psychological)

• Providing financing to address cash flow barriers
• Providing support to residents to manage their retrofit
  
• Increasing the accessibility of retrofit educational initiatives and services (documents compatible with screen readers; offered in multiple languages) to engage a wider audience

6. Can you identify any negative impacts that this action may cause? Are there any measures that can help to proactively prevent that harm?

• Low customer demand, stemming from a lack of awareness of energy efficiency benefits
  
• High upfront costs of retrofits, long payback times, and lack of trained and certified contractors and accessors
  
• Other real and perceived risks and barriers to energy efficiency improvements include performance risks, project and timeline overrun costs, split incentives for rental properties, uncertainty with the length of ownership, and risks caused from poor quality retrofits

7. Who hasn't yet been engaged that would be good to engage? Why would they be good to engage? What may limit their engagement interest/ability?

• Providing residents with financing opportunities and energy concierge supports would aid in job creation, increase community engagement, widen the audience that can participate in retrofit programs, and provide a better customer experience for residents advancing their retrofits
  

Additional Strategies:

• Financial incentives: Offer long-term, low-interest loans and financial incentives to assist small business owners and/or cash strapped households in efficiency upgrades; prioritize incentives to support those target audiences
• Provide financial incentives for energy savings for qualified affordable housing providers/developers with the goal of having all affordable housing operating at net-zero emissions
  
• Community input: Invite community input early in the program development process; host listening sessions, focus groups, and workshops to understand communities' energy needs and the obstacles they are facing when trying to lower their energy usage and bills
• Outreach: Conduct outreach campaigns to ensure all communities are aware of energy efficiency programs and assistance, and increase energy literacy (e.g., defining energy 'efficiency' vs. 'savings' vs. 'consumption')
• Reinvest: Reinvest savings from energy efficiency in wealth-building initiatives in disinvested communities
• Target audience: Identify those who are most energy-cost burdened, and target energy efficiency programs to that audience
  
• Testimony: Publish testimonials and/or case studies featuring those who have successfully undergone residential retrofits to help spread information, advocate for retrofits, increase engagement, and potentially influence decision-makers

Do you have additional suggestions for climate and equity synergies related to residential retrofit programs? Add them here.