Climate Resilient Communities

Green Building United's Climate Resilient Communities initiative promotes climate justice by assisting communities at the neighborhood level through climate change knowledge exchange and action.

Green Building United does this by addressing both the social and built environments because the effects of climate change and substandard housing disproportionately impact low-income communities. This work includes developing educational opportunities around climate change and resiliency and above-code green building standards.

HERE4CJ

Philly Climate Works and Green Building United are working together to convene the Housing Equity Repairs and Electrification for Climate Justice (HERE4CJ) coalition to explore the opportunities and barriers for healthy home repairs and equitable housing electrification in Philadelphia.

To achieve scalable solutions that address affordability, health, workforce, and a changing climate, we are bringing together community members, environmental and climate justice leaders, housing rights advocates, building engineers, workforce development partners, CDC implementers, and finance experts to create the case for why electrification + home repairs is critical for the health, environment, and economy of Philadelphians and is an essential anti-displacement strategy.

In it's first year of work, HERE4CJ coalition members engaged in a collaborative process to solidify the group’s vision, purpose, principles, and desired outcomes. In the Fall of 2021, a steering committee was established to create a formalized governance structure and decision-making process for the coalition, as well as to lead a participatory priority-setting process to select and implement HERE4CJ's future campaigns and strategies. These campaigns will focus on equitable building electrification, workforce development, long-term financing and policy solutions, and supporting and analyzing pilot programs.

Climate Resilience Workshops

Green Building United is partnering with Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations (PACDC) to provide community climate resilience workshops. Events have taken place in 2018, 2019, and 2021 that gathered urban planners, project managers, developers, community groups, and interested community members to discuss how climate change is impacting Philadelphia communities and what can be done to address impacts at the local level.

2020-2021 Demonstration Project

The Passive House Community of Green Building United is excited to collaborate with Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia (Habitat) to further their goal of offering an increased volume of affordable, high performance housing.

Through this project, the Passive House Community will examine Habitat’s high performance designs, collaborate in the field, and linking to the ultimate goal of single family owned, healthy, affordable, high performing row homes.

The Demonstration Project goals are to educate our joint communities and generate an affordable passive house alternative for Habitat using the existing Oxford Green Community Model. There is also future potential to connect “beyond the choir” with Habitat’s partners in the health, real estate, and development sectors.

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New Gravity Housing Conference: Climate Change and the Imperative of High Performance Affordable Housing

The reality of climate change will fundamentally alter the way buildings are designed, built, and operated in the coming decades.

At the same time, the need for quality affordable housing that can withstand increasingly extreme and volatile weather continues to grow. Building healthy, safe, and accessible places to live that will both limit and adapt to climate impacts is a key challenge for the 21st century. This cutting edge conference will explore the tools, techniques, and practices that the building community is using to address this challenge.