Stakeholder Engagement for Regional Energy Efficiency

Purpose

Conduct outreach with stakeholders in a region to discuss the realities of energy burden for the most vulnerable to high utility bills and unlock the ways that energy efficiency can be leveraged as aid within the community.

My Role

I led the outreach to stakeholders in the region, leaning on the Senior Consultant for support and remaining Project Team for technical details. I created discussion guides and led the writing of engagement reports.

Background

The region of the project is known for high energy burden (when utility bills exceed 3% of a household’s income), even though energy costs are among the lowest in the country. Knowing the region’s limited budget, the project team was set to create an Action Plan for Energy Efficiency (EE), prioritizing ways in which government leadership in the area can best support its residents.

Stakeholder Engagement

Over three months, the team held over fifteen interviews with community-based organizations (CBOs), program administrators, local government staff, and advocacy groups as well as hosted one stakeholder convening to provide opportunities for further engagement.

Stakeholders elevated the barriers and obstacles to reducing energy burden and high utility bills including: expensive AC, lack of Weatherization funding, no sense of security, lack of adequate disaster cooling centers, confusion about program offerings, lack of workforce for rapid scale, worker certifications hard to come by, cultural barriers, language accessibility in funding and relief applications, lack of connection between affordable housing and EE programs, pre-weatherization needed to weatherize, dwellings not up to code, lack of trust and accountability in utility.

However, while energy burden is high, stakeholders emphasized the myriad of issues tenants face, including lack of job accessibility and stability, high housing costs and eviction risks, as well as housing-related health and safety issues. Moreover, stakeholders noted contradictions in data, exposing that many tenants face energy bills of $400-500 per month, wildly over the estimation of $1500 per year.

Stakeholder engagement findings were folded into a proposed Action Plan to the region, and elevating the need for tailored community engagement around future programs and efforts as well as a maintained relationship with stakeholders.

Lessons Learned

Set a larger budget for engagement with stakeholders and provide more opportunities to engage
Be on the ground for further relationship building and mutuality
Don’t allow EE to guide the project