Did you know that building and facility energy use is the region’s second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, which represents nearly half of King County carbon emissions? The continual increase in greenhouse gas emissions is a key driver of the ongoing climate crisis. The need for sustainable, regenerative, and resilient building practices is critical to curbing greenhouse gas emissions and fostering a climate-friendly future. Additionally, climate change often disproportionately impacts frontline communities – communities that face historic and current inequities and have limited resources to adapt, often cited as environmental justice or overburdened communities. This makes the need for a sustainable, equitable, and environmentally just future even greater.

The Department of Local Services (DLS) Energize! Heat Pump program is one of many of King County sustainable building tools and centers both sustainability and equity principles as a foundation of the program. The program contributes to reaching the County’s Strategic Climate Action Plan (SCAP) goals of reducing countywide sources of greenhouse gas emissions, compared to a 2007 baseline, by 25% by 2020, 50% by 2030, and 80% by 2050. There are a number of action items in the SCAP that relate to this program including, goals to reduce the burden of heating costs for frontline communities, and to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels in buildings such as through heating homes with oil and natural gas.

The goal of the Energize! program is to reduce energy bills and local air pollution, while providing efficient heating and cooling systems that improve resiliency against extreme weather and heat waves. Heat pumps provide highly efficient electrical heating and cooling. They are more energy-efficient than traditional heating and cooling systems and require few raw materials to manufacture. They also run on electricity rather than fossil fuels, benefiting the planet. Added benefits include cleaner indoor air quality and lower energy bills. Clean indoor air is instrumental in reducing serious health impacts like asthma attacks, heart attacks, premature death, and strokes. Furthermore, heat pumps can save 25-50% in heating costs over traditional electric heating systems and can save even more compared to oil heating systems.

The Energize! program will install high-efficiency heat pumps in between 120 – 150 low- and moderate-income households in the White Center and Skyway unincorporated areas. The program will provide 100% cost-coverage for low-income households (up to 80% area median income (AMI)) and 80% cost-coverage for moderate-income household (81% – 120% AMI). The neighborhoods were identified based on the Washington Environmental Health Disparities Map that ranks the cumulative risk each neighborhood in Washington faces from environmental factors that influence health outcomes. The tool allows users to identify cumulative environmental health impacts and overburdened communities. North Highline in White Center and Sky-West Hill in Skyway were among the overburdened communities most impacted by environmental health risks, thus prioritizing them for the program. For those outside of this service area, the program helps direct households to federal Inflation Reduction Act rebates anticipated in early- to mid-2024 that could reduce the cost of heat pumps and other green home improvements for many homes.

The program offers residents educational workshops to learn more about the program and heat pump technology. An HVAC contractor and low-interest lender are present at the workshops to help answer questions. Regardless of income, attendees can have their home assessed to see if a heat pump is a good fit for their home. The Energize! Team kicked off the program this past summer and have hosted three community workshops to date, all of which were well attended.

“We’ve been pleasantly surprised with the turnout,” said Nicole Sanders, program manager for Energize! “About 150 households have come to workshops so far. Another 100 have registered for the fourth workshop, and a lot of folks are currently signing up for site visits with installers. People seem to appreciate learning about heat pumps and what they can do for their homes.”

The Energize! program provides management and support throughout the installation process including language access for households with lower English proficiency, and application assistance. Energize! program case managers will also support the application process for weatherization and utility discount programs. Furthermore, the program supports women and minority-owned business enterprises (WMBE) via targeted HVAC training and installation recruitment, which will fund up to six WMBE HVAC job shadow positions. These are further examples of centering equitable principles within a program.

Initiatives like the Energize! program are important resources for sustainable building and for advancing equity principles by prioritizing overburdened communities. Through sustainable building practices, we are not only reducing our carbon footprint but also creating spaces that help connect us to the natural world. The Energize! program is providing a framework and tool for the built environment to remove itself from fossil fuels and extractive technologies. Creating programs that reimagine the built environment while centering overburdened communities is a solution to a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable future.