Two Convenings Held on the Health-Energy Efficiency Nexus in Multifamily Housing

In September, the National Housing Trust worked with its Energy Efficiency for All partners, The Green and Healthy Homes Initiative, and shared research on how unhealthy indoor air quality in low-income homes can exacerbate asthma and other chronic diseases, leading to missed work, missed school, emergency department visits, and repeat hospitalizations. 

Convening participants learned about the health benefits of energy-health retrofits to multifamily housing. These retrofits might include boiler replacement, bathroom and kitchen venting, stabilizing chipping paint, and resident education. NHT partnered with  NRDC  and the Green and Healthy Homes Initiative, as well as local organizations to host these convenings in Minneapolis, MN and Jefferson City, MO. Attendees included housing owners and advocates, energy organizations, utilities, community action agencies, state energy offices, state health departments, nonprofit hospitals, health insurance providers, county health departments and public health organizations. This was the first time health stakeholders joined an energy efficiency discussion in these states.

For more information on the nexus of energy efficiency and health or any future convenings of this topic, please contact NHT Energy Efficiency Advisor Annika Brink.