Meg Howard
Username
Meg Howard
Proposer First Name
Meg
Proposer Email
mhoward@masscec.com
Proposer Last Name
Howard
Proposer Company/Organization
Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
Proposer Phone
(617) 315-9379
Proposer Job Title
Program Director
Boston 2023 Areas of Focus
Proposed Session Description
MassCEC’s Decarbonization Pathways pilot has tested and refined a protocol for a home decarbonization assessment with a goal of eliminating the use of fossil fuels in small residential buildings. The pilot also tested approaches to providing targeted support at the time customers are ready to act. The panel will cover the outcomes from the first cohort, discuss the ongoing second cohort, and describe further refinements for the upcoming third cohort.
Diversity and Inclusiveness
MassCEC sought to include households with a diverse range of incomes, so about a third of participants have an income
Learning Objectives
Understand the technical goals and challenges in a home decarbonization assessment.
Think through the tradeoffs that need to be made from a policy maker’s or program administrator’s perspective to scale a residential decarbonization assessment model.
Identify the cost-effective and impactful strategies for providing homeowners with useful and timely decarbonization guidance.
Incorporate decarbonization into existing models and business plans.
Has this session been presented before?
No
Additional Comments
Meg Howard and Kristin Dupre presented on a similar topic in April 2023 at the National Home Performance Conference in Seattle. We expect that in March 2024 we will have significantly more program data to share, including a winter's woth of electrical monitoring data from Cohort 1 participants. We also hope to be able to include Tamir's perspective as the person in the field doing decarbonization assessments, as well as the perspective of a participating homeowner.
Target Audiences Level of Expertise
Level 2 - Some prior knowledge helpful.
Session Format
Presentation followed by facilitated discussion or breakout groups
Session Format Details
Presentation (approximately 45 minutes) followed by facilitated discussion (20 minutes) and Q&A (25 minutes)
Recommended Length
90-minute session
Strongest Content Connection - Boston 2023
Comments about your speaker roster
Kristin Dupre has been managing this project with Mike Ostiguy for Abode, and she is available to moderate the panel unless NESEA prefers to have someone from the content committee play that role. We plan to include a participating homeowner. We have not talked with any homeowners yet but we are confident that we could find a pilot participant that was willing and able to come to a conference in Boston.
Anything else you'd like to tell us about your session proposal?
Our pilot's website is here: https://www.masscec.com/program/decarbonization-pathways-pilot
Reviewer 1
Dillon, Emily
Reviewer 2
Dillon, Emily
Proposal #
205
Committee Decision
Being Considered
Presenters
Full Description
The Decarbonization Pathways pilot is one of few pilots of this kind across the nation. This pilot will hopefully offer valuable lessons as policymakers in Massachusetts, the region, and the nation look to scale residential decarbonization. Industry stakeholders of all kinds can better understand the opportunity and barriers to scaling residential decarbonization measures, incorporating decarbonization into existing programs, and providing equity in program design.