President Biden ran and won on a historic climate plan that includes a commitment to retrofit at least four million buildings and weatherize at least two million residential buildings during his first term in office. This goal is well within reach, but the numbers represent only a down payment on the true potential of mobilizing a national transformation that could ultimately reach most of the 140 million homes across the US within the coming decade. A full generational investment in building energy efficiency improvements is therefore needed, not only to dramatically transform our energy usage and networks, but also to provide much needed economic stimulus and jumpstart the recovery.

In Economic Recovery Begins at Home: Retrofitting US Housing Stock for Jobs, Health, Savings, and the Climate, authors Bracken Hendricks, Kara Saul Rinaldi, Mark Wolfe, Cassandra Lovejoy, and Wes Gobar present the concurrent benefits of robust investment in energy efficiency in buildings, including the opportunity for significant job creation, improving public health, advancing racial justice and reversing past racist housing policies, and spurring innovation. The authors provide a concrete plan for federal policy to rebuild housing stock, promote health, lower costs for homeowners, take steps toward reaching 100 percent clean and carbon-free energy, and protect the global environment.

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BPA’s Kara Saul-Rinaldi is a co-author of the report.