UC Berkeley

Local actions are increasingly seen as essential for buildings to transition off fossil fuels, led by local governments who have enacted ambitious climate action plans. A complementary approach described in this paper leverages existing connections and institutions within a local area to implement programs led by members of the local community.

This paper presents findings from the Oakland EcoBlock pilot project, which has built on existing relationships among neighbors on a block in Oakland to decarbonize a cohort of residential buildings. We focus on lessons learned about social dynamics and individual behavior that can be used to improve local programs in the future. These lessons include factors such as the need for strong local champions who can serve as “connectors” within a community, the importance of neighbor-to-neighbor marketing of the program, the need for objective educational materials to build trust within the community, and the effectiveness of starting with relatively easy community activities initially (such as tree planting) to build working relationships. This package of social/behavioral activities helped the EcoBlock increase retrofit program participation within the target population from the 5-10% rate typical of low-income programs to approximately two-thirds of the residents.