Activating Tenants to Advocate for Energy Justice: Barriers and Solutions

There is an urgent need to identify strategies to overcome barriers to low-income rental housing energy efficiency, given high associated climate change, racial equity, economic and health justice costs. A major barrier is the landlord-tenant split incentive problem, in which landlords, who do not pay energy bills, and tenants, who by not owning their homes cannot capture the full value of energy-saving investments, have low incentives to invest in energy efficiency. While prior research has focused on addressing barriers to this problem, little attention has been paid to the potential for tenants to work collectively to push for energy efficiency upgrades, so shifting the tenant-landlord balance of power. This community-based, qualitative study will identify mechanisms to engage tenants with residential energy efficiency, advocacy for identified solutions, and the imagining of new solutions.