CAREER: CAS-Climate -- A modeling framework to understand the environmental and equity impacts of building decarbonization retrofits

Retrofitting existing buildings to reduce carbon emissions is an urgent engineering challenge. Existing buildings are responsible for one-third of U.S. carbon emissions and reducing or eliminating these emissions is critical for meeting national climate goals. However, if not fully understood and carefully managed, the climate benefits of decarbonization could come at the expense of energy affordability, increasing the already high energy burden felt in many low-income communities. Predictive building energy modeling tools (i.e., models as scientific data) and game-based learning methods (i.e., models as play) offer opportunities for examining what-if scenarios at the intersection of building decarbonization and equity, but need to be transformed to this aim. To meet this need, the goal of this CAREER research is to investigate the environmental and equity impacts of building decarbonization retrofits using a novel predictive modeling framework. The education goal is to increase public energy literacy through game-based learning. The outcomes of this research will help accelerate building decarbonization while balancing its benefits and costs across the population. The education activities will improve energy and carbon literacy among a diverse population of youth and young adults. This research has three specific objectives: (R1) Quantify the benefits and burdens of building decarbonization retrofits by climate and grid region using a novel equity-focused energy modeling approach; (R2) Analyze the interactions between decarbonization retrofits and underlying patterns of energy inequity at the urban scale using urban building energy modeling; and (R3) Determine the benefits and burdens of building decarbonization retrofits under future climate and grid scenarios. This research will advance fundamental understanding of building decarbonization and its impacts on underlying patterns of inequity in the built environment, as well as our capacity to model these impacts. The education activities will design, pilot, and evaluate two games for youth and young adults: (E1) Urban building decarbonization game for middle and high school students and teachers; and (E2) Energy burden simulation for undergraduate students. The education activities will produce classroom materials for teaching students about building decarbonization and household energy burden through game-based learning. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.