The goal of the Climate Equity Hub is to advance climate justice by supporting homeowners, renters, and construction workers in San Francisco's transition to all-electric buildings.
Most homes in San Francisco rely on natural gas (instead of clean, renewable electricity) for space heating, water heating, and cooking. But this pollutes indoor air, leads to health problems like asthma, and contributes to climate change.
Electrification has many benefits, but there are also challenges to changing gas appliances in existing homes to electric ones. The Climate Equity Hub aims to make this process easier by:
- Raising awareness and providing resources for homeowners and renters
- Increasing the number of high-quality jobs by growing the construction workforce
- Simplifying government permitting processes and requirements
This page will be continuously updated to document our progress to bring the Climate Equity Hub to reality.
Questions? Contact Elise McLane, Building Decarbonization Associate at [email protected].
Phase 0: Hub beginnings
The idea for the Climate Equity Hub came from the 2017 San Francisco Energy Efficiency Coordinator Committee, and then evolved through Mayor Breed’s Zero Emission Building Taskforce (2019 to 2020) and the development of the 2020 All-Electric New Construction Ordinance. The concept was included as an action in the 2021 Climate Action Plan (see page 70) to align with the citywide goal to be net-zero emissions by 2040.
Phase 1: Planning the Hub
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors provided funding to SF Environment to refine the Climate Equity Hub concept. In May 2022, SF Environment and Dalberg Consulting invited dozens of stakeholders to participate in the process, which included nonprofits, community-based organizations, building industry professionals, public agencies, workforce organizations, and utilities, among others. In one-on-one interviews and online workshops, these individuals discussed the priority functions of the Hub and how it should be organized and managed to be most effective.
Phase 1 findings and process documents:
- Climate Equity Hub Concept and Design: Executive Summary
- Climate Equity Hub Concept and Design: Full Report
- Stakeholder Engagement Summary
- Workshop slides:
Phase 2: Hub implementation
Based on stakeholder input, the Climate Equity Hub will be a public/private partnership in which certain functions will be led by a community-based organization, and other functions will be led by the City.
See the Request for Proposals (0000007712) to select the Climate Equity Hub partner organization. Proposals are due, Thursday, February 16, 2023 by 5 PM PST. Once selected, the partner organization and SF Environment will assemble an Advisory Board and start Hub implementation.
