Letter from the Editor: Green Retrofitting, Resilience & Efficiency

Green retrofitting, or the process of retrofitting a home to make it more energy efficient, has been part of the Community Development industry’s housing development work for decades. In addition to improving energy usage and efficiency, green development can also provide health benefits to residents. Today, as concerns about the environment continue to grow, community groups are reflecting on these past practices, and looking for ways to improve them, and better integrate green development into their overall strategies. Whether leveraged for single-family or multi-family homes, green housing development is an effective way to tackle changes in our climate, preserve housing, and promote community resilience.  

One such strategy at the forefront of the discourse on green retrofitting, resilience and efficiency, is the that of developing passive houses, which refers to an energy efficiency standard that can be applied to renovated or new construction. With a goal to lower consumption and reduce energy demand, passive house development can offer benefits to developers, and even tax incentives if a project meets certain  criteria set by each state’s Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP). There are continued efforts across the country to support this practice, and to ensure that this type of development can become a standard for the field.  

In this Spotlight on Green Retrofitting and Resilience and Efficiency, we’re highlighting some best practices and recommendations for passive house development from RiseBoro Community Partnership in NYC and Lake Regions Community Developers in NH in this piece. We also feature guides and toolkits to help practitioners establish programs to support residents and their neighbors, like this LISC guide  on green and healthy multifamily affordable housing. Additionally, our peers at Enterprise have compiled guidance on green retrofits and aging-in-place design guidelines. Read the story roundup in our “What We’re Reading” section for recent articles and news articles highlighting how green infrastructure is being utilized as an anti-poverty strategythe passive house benefits on social inclusion and the impact of a reduction in gas emissions on the housing market.