Energy Efficiency

H&M is Closing Exterior Doors to Open Savings

This article was very shocking and eyeopening to me. Until reading this article the meer concept of keeping store doors open did not strike me as a costly activity. For years, retailers have kept exterior doors open in order to create a welcoming and inviting feel for their customers in hopes...Read more

Consumers’ perceptions of energy use and energy savings: A literature review

This article caught my attention because of the perfect match with the 3 research questions which I had in my mind during the first class of this course. Consumer’s perceptions about energy demand, supply, usage and concerns will vary across people from different geographies, economic...Read more

Massachusetts’ new efficiency plan puts a priority on underserved communities

Massachusetts’ new $668 million three-year energy efficiency plan is awaiting approval from the state Department of Public Utilities. This plan include provisions to increase outreach and expand eligibility in underserved communities and pay utilities for providing services in these...Read more

Gillard et al. - Energy Justice - 2017

The interdisciplinary dialogue that is presented in this source serves to lay foundational understandings of fuel poverty and the phenomenon's complexity and its effects on housing stock and energy efficiency, particularly for low income and disabled people.Read more

A carbon pledge, a bag ban, a tree plan: Philly’s year in environmental news and what’s next

This article highlights the biggest environmental news coming from Philadelphia in the year 2021. 

  • "Philadelphia vowed to be carbon neutral by 2050. One strategy for meeting this goal comes from Philly's Building Energy Performance Program, which requires all non-residential
  • ...Read more
A Pandemic and Surging Summer Heat Leave Thousands Struggling to Pay Utility Bills

This article is particularly relevant to investigations on energy vulnerability, but also particularly relevant to predictions of compounded vulnerabilities made by the research group before the first round of interviews. For example, one of the people interviewed said she was forced to shut her...Read more

Conca - Pandemic Energy Use - 2020

The article comments on the changes in consumption that have been reported in the past weeks, mainly as the United States (and other Western Countries) have come to witness the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the article, the reporter mentions Energy peaks shifting hours and patterns and...Read more

Lifting the High Energy Burden in America’s Largest Cities: How Energy Efficiency Can Improve Low Income and Underserved Communities

This report provides a snapshot of energy burdens in cities across the US. It focuses on the high home energy burdens faced by select groups in major metropolitan areas. Years of analysis by the firm of Fisher Sheehan & Colton determined that low-income households pay proportionally more...Read more

Analysis of Thomas Flaherty Interview

The weatherization assistance program, otherwise known as WAP, is one of they only assistance programs that applies interventions to physical fabric of the home. The goal of the WAP is strictly to achieve energy efficiency of the home and is otherwise helpless, sometimes even deleterious when it...Read more

Funding challenges limit minority-owned businesses’ access to energy efficiency

As already documented prior to the pandemic, Black, Latinx, and minority-owned businesses tend to fare worse than white-owned businesses. With the advent of the pandemic, Black and Latinx-owned businesses closed down at twice or nearly twice the rate of white-owned businesses. A combination of...Read more

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