The BDC Announces New Appointments to Our Executive Leadership Team
The Building Decarbonization Coalition is thrilled to announce a strategic expansion of our Senior Executive Team. Enhancing the BDC’s capabilities in the areas of Mission Implementation, Operations, State Level Initiatives, Communications and Strategic Partnerships, each new member of the BDC’s Senior Executive Team will report to Panama Bartholomy, Executive Director:
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Johanna Partin has been appointed as the Deputy Director of The Building Decarbonization Coalition. Prior to her appointment as Deputy Director, Ms. Partin was the Founding Director of the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance. She is the former North American Regional Director of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and Senior Environmental Policy Advisor to former San Francisco Mayors Gavin Newsom and Edward Lee. Johanna@buildingdecarb.org |
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Jose Torres has joined the BDC as California Director. Mr. Torres is the former Energy Equity Program Manager for the California Environmental Justice Alliance. Mr. Torres has also served as an Analyst with the California Energy Commission and as a Legislative Aide to Members of The California State Assembly. Jose@buildingdecarb.org |
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Bryce Butler has been named the BDC’s Director of Strategic Partnerships. Mr. Butler is the former VP of Operations and Business Development for Proposal Lab, a corporate consulting and advisory firm. Prior to his tenure at Proposal Lab, Mr. Butler served as an Administrator for St. Paul's Senior Services and Executive Director with Bridgestone Senior Living. A U.S. Veteran, Mr. Butler served as a Green Beret, U.S. Army Special Forces. Bryce@buildingdecarb.org |
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Jessica Leader has been named as the BDC’s Co-Director of Communications. Prior to joining the BDC, Ms. Leader served as the Corporate Communications Manager for Sunrun, the national leader in home solar and energy services. Prior to Sunrun, Ms. Leader served as the Communications Director for FreeWire Technologies and as the Director of Eco, Wellness and Social Responsibility Partnerships for the HuffPost Partner Studio. Jessica@buildingdecarb.org |
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Richard G. Harris has been named as the BDC’s Co-Director of Communications. From 2015-2020, Mr. Harris served as the Strategic Communications Advisor to the Chairman and Senior Leadership of Afghanistan’s Bayat Group, Afghanistan’s largest company, and to Bayat Power, Afghanistan’s largest Energy Exploration, Development and Production Company. Prior to the Bayat Group, Mr. Harris served as Strategic Communications Counsel to Energy, Cleantech, Finance, Technology, and Public Policy Enterprises located in the U.S., EU, MENA, and India. Richard@buildingdecarb.org |
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Ashleigh Spurgeon has been named as the BDC’s Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships. Ms. Spurgeon previously served as the BDC’s Operations Manager, responsible for the implementation of the organization’s Membership, Research and Communications Initiatives. Ashleigh@buildingdecarb.org |
First-of-its-kind Policy Roadmap Provides Strategies to Ensure Equitable Access to Pollution Free Homes and Workspaces
The New Accessible Financing White Paper is Here!
Innovative financing tool could ensure that clean technologies are not just for affluent Californians
San Francisco, Calif.— On the heels of newly released data showing that California’s clean energy programs disproportionately benefit the wealthy, a first-of-its-kind roadmap outlines how policymakers could work with stakeholders to help low-and moderate-income and renter households across California, which together make up more than 40 percent of the state’s population, access building upgrades that enable greater access to clean technologies that slash indoor air pollution.
Widespread participation in clean, electric home upgrades is critical to meaningfully reduce harmful building emissions, yet clean energy investments remain out of reach for many energy customers who have neither the money to afford the upgrades nor the credit necessary to borrow what they cost.
“This roadmap is needed now more than ever as California breaks new ground in expanding building electrification,” said Panama Bartholomy, executive director of the Building Electrification Coalition. “The road to adoption and implementation has not yet been paved for building decarbonization. This map is essential for ensuring everyone can access cutting edge, clean building technologies.”
The roadmap in the new report “Towards an Accessible Financing Solution: A Policy Roadmap with Program Implementation Considerations for Tariffed On-Bill Programs in California” outlines how policymakers can:
“The overarching goal is finding an accessible financing solution for clean energy upgrades that is universally accessible to all California households, without regard to income level,” said Holmes Hummel, founder of Clean Energy Works and co-author of the report. “We believe that a solution that works for renters as well as lower income households will also expand accessibility to clean energy for higher-income property owners.”
The Building Decarbonization Coalition commissioned researchers to investigate successful program models from other states and compile stakeholder input into the report with the goal of opening the state’s clean energy economy to all households and renters, recommending innovative financial tools to help solve the problem.
One innovative financing tool would expand access to cleaner, healthier electric homes using tariffed on-bill programs that allow a utility to pay for cost-effective energy improvements at a specific residence, such as home heating and cooling units, and to recover its costs for those improvements over time through a dedicated charge on the utility bill that is immediately less than the estimated savings from the improvements.
Similar tariffed on-bill programs for energy efficiency upgrades have been successfully implemented during the past 18 years in eight states by 18 utilities from Hawaii to New Hampshire, including investor owned, cooperative, and municipal utilities. Program results indicate consistently high adoption rates for clean energy upgrades and low charge-off rates for nonpayment, even in areas characterized by conditions of persistent poverty.
Thirty cities and counties across California have already moved to make buildings healthier and more climate friendly by passing all-electric building measures to cut pollution from new homes and buildings—which are responsible for 25% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions—almost half (12%) of which come from residential homes. Slashing these emissions would help the state meet its 100% clean energy goals.
The roadmap is a tool to help policymakers craft policies that eliminate long standing barriers like high upfront costs that prevent many California households from making clean energy investments—and also support the scale of investment needed to meet California’s looming climate targets. The Equitable Building Electrification framework released by Greenlining Institute and Energy Efficiency For All has also called on policy-makers to find ways to support financing solutions such as tariffed on-bill investments to ensure all communities can be served.
The roadmap identifies four criteria as benchmarks for successful policy design:
These financing tools boost clean energy investments among low-income Californians–those most likely to be left depending on the declining gas system as wealthier customers voluntarily switch to clean energy—while at the same time expanding access to clean energy across all incomes.
“California will need an artful combination of updated building codes, appliance standards, regulatory requirements, public funding, and ratepayer-funded incentives, combined with policies to ensure low-income households and renters have access to affordable clean energy solutions to achieve building decarbonization at the scale necessary to meet the state’s climate protection goals,” said Hummel.
Read the full report!
On July 9, the Building Decarbonized Coalition hosted a webinar to celebrate the publication of BDC’s policy roadmap for Tariffed On-Bill investments in California featuring a video conference briefing on the white paper contents. The white paper outlines a policy roadmap for expanding access to clean energy investment opportunities, particularly for low- and moderate-income households and renters. The report represents the culmination of six months of research and stakeholder input and calls for $36 billion in private capital investments to augment California’s publicly funded programs.
Speakers included Holmes Hummel, a nationally recognized subject matter expert on tariffed on-bill investments, having written the investment plans for utility program in North Carolina and Arkansas and securing millions of dollars of low cost capital for investment in service areas recognized for persistent poverty, and project manager Bruce Mast, who shepherded the white paper to completion and contributed a career’s worth of experience in California energy policy, program implementation, performance risk management, and the customer economics of building electrification.
Webinar Recording
Presentation
The New Accessible Financing White Paper is Here!
Innovative financing tool could ensure that clean technologies are not just for affluent Californians
San Francisco, Calif.— On the heels of newly released data showing that California’s clean energy programs disproportionately benefit the wealthy, a first-of-its-kind roadmap outlines how policymakers could work with stakeholders to help low-and moderate-income and renter households across California, which together make up more than 40 percent of the state’s population, access building upgrades that enable greater access to clean technologies that slash indoor air pollution.
Widespread participation in clean, electric home upgrades is critical to meaningfully reduce harmful building emissions, yet clean energy investments remain out of reach for many energy customers who have neither the money to afford the upgrades nor the credit necessary to borrow what they cost.
“This roadmap is needed now more than ever as California breaks new ground in expanding building electrification,” said Panama Bartholomy, executive director of the Building Electrification Coalition. “The road to adoption and implementation has not yet been paved for building decarbonization. This map is essential for ensuring everyone can access cutting edge, clean building technologies.”
The roadmap in the new report “Towards an Accessible Financing Solution: A Policy Roadmap with Program Implementation Considerations for Tariffed On-Bill Programs in California” outlines how policymakers can:
- Open a more accessible and equitable path to clean energy solutions.
- Remove barriers to accessing clean energy solutions.
- Address embedded barriers to clean energy solutions.
“The overarching goal is finding an accessible financing solution for clean energy upgrades that is universally accessible to all California households, without regard to income level,” said Holmes Hummel, founder of Clean Energy Works and co-author of the report. “We believe that a solution that works for renters as well as lower income households will also expand accessibility to clean energy for higher-income property owners.”
The Building Decarbonization Coalition commissioned researchers to investigate successful program models from other states and compile stakeholder input into the report with the goal of opening the state’s clean energy economy to all households and renters, recommending innovative financial tools to help solve the problem.
One innovative financing tool would expand access to cleaner, healthier electric homes using tariffed on-bill programs that allow a utility to pay for cost-effective energy improvements at a specific residence, such as home heating and cooling units, and to recover its costs for those improvements over time through a dedicated charge on the utility bill that is immediately less than the estimated savings from the improvements.
Similar tariffed on-bill programs for energy efficiency upgrades have been successfully implemented during the past 18 years in eight states by 18 utilities from Hawaii to New Hampshire, including investor owned, cooperative, and municipal utilities. Program results indicate consistently high adoption rates for clean energy upgrades and low charge-off rates for nonpayment, even in areas characterized by conditions of persistent poverty.
Thirty cities and counties across California have already moved to make buildings healthier and more climate friendly by passing all-electric building measures to cut pollution from new homes and buildings—which are responsible for 25% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions—almost half (12%) of which come from residential homes. Slashing these emissions would help the state meet its 100% clean energy goals.
The roadmap is a tool to help policymakers craft policies that eliminate long standing barriers like high upfront costs that prevent many California households from making clean energy investments—and also support the scale of investment needed to meet California’s looming climate targets. The Equitable Building Electrification framework released by Greenlining Institute and Energy Efficiency For All has also called on policy-makers to find ways to support financing solutions such as tariffed on-bill investments to ensure all communities can be served.
The roadmap identifies four criteria as benchmarks for successful policy design:
- The ability to finance upgrades over long period time (10-15 years) even in rental units with multiple changes in tenancy
- Ability to leverage utility bill savings to defray investment costs, rather than rely on consumer credit or home equity
- Cash-positive outcomes that assure low and moderate income customers will not experience increased energy burdens
- Ability to scale to serve millions of California households
These financing tools boost clean energy investments among low-income Californians–those most likely to be left depending on the declining gas system as wealthier customers voluntarily switch to clean energy—while at the same time expanding access to clean energy across all incomes.
“California will need an artful combination of updated building codes, appliance standards, regulatory requirements, public funding, and ratepayer-funded incentives, combined with policies to ensure low-income households and renters have access to affordable clean energy solutions to achieve building decarbonization at the scale necessary to meet the state’s climate protection goals,” said Hummel.
Read the full report!
On July 9, the Building Decarbonized Coalition hosted a webinar to celebrate the publication of BDC’s policy roadmap for Tariffed On-Bill investments in California featuring a video conference briefing on the white paper contents. The white paper outlines a policy roadmap for expanding access to clean energy investment opportunities, particularly for low- and moderate-income households and renters. The report represents the culmination of six months of research and stakeholder input and calls for $36 billion in private capital investments to augment California’s publicly funded programs.
Speakers included Holmes Hummel, a nationally recognized subject matter expert on tariffed on-bill investments, having written the investment plans for utility program in North Carolina and Arkansas and securing millions of dollars of low cost capital for investment in service areas recognized for persistent poverty, and project manager Bruce Mast, who shepherded the white paper to completion and contributed a career’s worth of experience in California energy policy, program implementation, performance risk management, and the customer economics of building electrification.
Webinar Recording
Presentation
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