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A major source of climate pollution in the U.S. are buildings and the energy that they use. One way to cut that pollution is to swap out fossil fuels like natural gas and to replace appliances with electric ones. But doing this home by home, business by business is expensive and slow. So researchers in the San Francisco Bay Area tried to overhaul an entire block all at once. As part of NPR's Climate Solutions Week, KQED's Laura Klivans reports.
LAURA KLIVANS, BYLINE: When people talk about construction for a warmer world, a lot of focus is on how to design new buildings. But researcher Therese Peffer says that's not the most interesting question.
THERESE PEFFER: New construction's easy, right? And it's sexy, and it's fun, but it's not where the biggest problem is.
KLIVANS: The biggest problem, she says, is the millions of offices, warehouses, restaurants and homes we already have.
PEFFER: If we're going to try to really combat climate change, it is looking at the existing buildings in this country.
KLIVANS: In 2019, Peffer and her colleagues at University of California, Berkeley got a grant from the state to test out a new block-scale approach. Would there be savings from buying energy-efficient appliances in bulk? Would contractors move faster, say, installing solar panels if their next job was just across the street? Would people even sign up? They needed a guinea pig.
ISAAC ZONES: Hey, Laura.
KLIVANS: Hi.
Isaac Zones is a musician in East Oakland.
ZONES: Basically, I read it as, like, free solar for everybody on my block. This sounds great.
KLIVANS: Zones thought his block would be perfect. It's a mix of single-family homes and small apartment buildings. His neighbors range from cooks to tutors to techies. He was interested in the free stuff, but also, he and his wife care about the environment and, in recent years, more so because of their young son, Moises.
MOISES: Meow.
KLIVANS: He doubles as a cat.
VIVIAN SANTANA PACHECO: (Speaking Spanish).
MOISES: Gato.
KLIVANS: Here's his mom, Vivian Santana Pacheco.
SANTANA PACHECO: We have a child. We want this world to be a habitable one for him and being able to say, like, we did as much as we could to be part of that. And already, I feel like we're behind in that I'm not doing enough. And this feels more tangible than, like, showing up to a protest.
KLIVANS: The first challenge was convincing their neighbors. Zones and Santana Pacheco went door to door, talking up the idea of an EcoBlock. That's what the project's called. It would outfit buildings with solar panels and insulation and replace gas furnaces and water heaters with electric models. There'd even be a shared electric vehicle, all for free. Some residents were immediately game, like people who wanted air conditioning to deal with California's increasing heat waves. Others saw the project as something bigger - a potential model for the rest of the city. Ismael Plasencia was born and raised here.
ISMAEL PLASENCIA: It presented this, like, opportunity to transform Oakland in a way that, you know, I don't think that most folks would have prioritized a community like this.
KLIVANS: He appreciated the focus on middle- and working-class families who wouldn't be able to make these improvements on their own. Plasencia and his family are renters, so they persuaded their property owner to sign on. Zones and Santana Pacheco - the instigators - continued down the street.
ZONES: As I was, like, going door to door and trying to get people to sign a letter of intent to be part of the EcoBlock, I think probably some of that was, like, did they trust me or not?
KLIVANS: This was key. Inviting people to overhaul their largest financial asset is a big ask, and it kind of sounded too good to be true. But people were more likely to listen when the message came from trusted neighbors. Zones and Santana Pacheco know everyone's names and have organized an annual block party for years.
SANTANA PACHECO: Also because, like, we are sticking it out. And so, like, we probably have as much to lose as they do.
KLIVANS: In the end, Zones and Santana Pacheco got 15 out of the 25 properties on the block to sign on. So who didn't want to be part of EcoBlock?
(SOUNDBITE OF KNOCKING ON DOOR)
STEVE JOHNSON: Hello.
KLIVANS: Hello. How's it going?
JOHNSON: Oh, pretty good.
KLIVANS: Steve Johnson lives in a white Victorian that's been in his family for almost a hundred years.
JOHNSON: As a matter of fact, my mother was born in that room over there.
KLIVANS: He's a retired contractor and spent decades remodeling his home.
JOHNSON: You know, I'm 70 years old. I just didn't want to go through a lot of new construction all over again.
KLIVANS: Johnson says he cares about the climate, but he isn't ready to give up all fossil fuels just yet.
JOHNSON: I just can't imagine not cooking on gas, and the whole EcoBlock wanted to take away the gas.
KLIVANS: That was a major goal - weaning homes off natural gas, which is a powerful climate pollutant. EcoBlock faced other hurdles beyond the holdouts - a pandemic, supply chain issues and inflation. As prices rose, the project shrank. Instead of an all-electric utopia, EcoBlock would mostly address the biggest sources of a home's pollution - heating and cooling. But three years after the project launched, very little had changed on the block, and those delays weighed on Zones.
ZONES: I often felt like, you know, my credibility as a neighbor is on the line here of this project going well.
KLIVANS: Finally, last year, construction began. Workers were everywhere, blowing insulation into walls, replacing HVAC systems and installing solar panels.
ZONES: We've had this joke a little bit on the block of, like, who's getting the porta potty in front of their house, and that's how we know who's getting construction done.
KLIVANS: Now, 5 1/2 years since the block signed on, the work is almost done. The changes are clear. Neighbors Nick Corlett and Tony Neira love them.
NICK CORLETT: Well, I didn't have a working furnace before, and now I have heat and AC, too.
TONY NEIRA: For the past couple of nights, I've been sleeping like a baby. House has been so warm (laughter).
KLIVANS: So did the theory work? Is upgrading a whole block faster and cheaper than going house by house? Researcher Therese Peffer says absolutely yes. She estimates EcoBlock saved 10- to 20% on equipment, and their contractor saved time too. In all, this pilot EcoBlock, including all the researchers, cost $8 million, funded by a state grant and a private donor. Peffer thinks the next attempt would cost just a third of that and go much faster.
PEFFER: It takes that first time of kind of kicking the tires and trying to break things to kind of lay that pathway for the next one.
KLIVANS: Peffer is writing guides for future EcoBlocks. One big takeaway is homes don't have to be on the very same block. They could be in the same neighborhood to get the benefits of scale. And residents could just start with a single appliance.
PEFFER: I want an induction stove. Do you want an induction stove? Let's go in together and see if we can get a 10% discount.
KLIVANS: But the biggest lesson is about the neighbors. That's where you begin - building trust and wanting to make a change. For Isaac Zones, that is how we'll tackle climate change.
ZONES: So much of it seems like kind of a string of losses, and this felt like a victory of some kind.
KLIVANS: EcoBlock's final solar panels will turn on this fall.
For NPR News, I'm Laura Klivans.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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