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THINK

How to retrofit 3.2 million multifamily units

For California to achieve its climate goals, affordable multifamily housing must improve energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and lower tenant utility bills while enhancing quality of life. Our new report covers how energy service agreements, combined with federal incentives, help scale needed decarbonizing retrofits.

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Energy Service Agreements for Deep Efficiency and Electrification Retrofits of Affordable Multifamily Housing in California

2030 Climate Challenge–Scale Zero: Accelerating Healthy Zero-emission, Affordable Housing for All

Transforming Existing Buildings from Climate Liabilities to Climate Assets

Boosting research for accelerating transportation electrification

Catalytic funding from FedEx and General Motors means RMI can now provide complex transport electrification and investment analysis at the census-block level, arming decision makers with the information to quickly, effectively, and equitably upgrade the US grid to meet increasing demand.

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FedEx and General Motors Support RMI Research to Accelerate Transportation Electrification

How Policy Actions Can Spur EV Adoption in the United States

More EVs, Fewer Emissions

EV-GRID

A cement alternative could reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 40 percent

Our insight brief, The 3Cs of Innovation in Low-Carbon Concrete, explores emerging and alternative concrete and cement technologies. RMI also co-hosted a workshop on LC3 — a climate-friendly cement blend that can achieve major emissions reductions. Of the 80 cement supply chain companies attending, one has announced that it will produce LC3, and several more are considering it.

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The 3Cs of Innovation in Low-Carbon Concrete

With Concrete, Less Is More

Unleashing the Potential of Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LC3)

Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LC3) Workshop

DO

Slashing aviation’s 2.5 percent of global CO₂ emissions

30o enable the sourcing of high-quality data.

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Center for Climate Aligned Finance

Climate Aligned Finance for Aviation

WFW Advising RMI and Leading Banks on Development of Aviation CAF Framework

Supporting applications to two important US federal funding programs

A new version of e-Lab — created by RMI to bring leading energy practitioners together to solve key energy transition problems — generated buzz for the US government’s Empowering Rural America (New ERA) Program and Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment program. Two boot camps for energy leaders supported Rural Electric Co-operatives’ applications to the New ERA program.

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e-Lab website

Supporting co-ops in leveraging unprecedented federal funding

Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment Financing

Empowering Rural America New ERA Program

Electrifying our favorite movie and TV productions

Disney, Netflix, and RMI are reimagining how film productions are powered. The Clean Mobile Power Initiative aims to galvanize the industry to deploy clean, reliable, mobile-power solutions as alternatives to diesel generators. To accelerate the number of technological solutions, the Clean Mobile Power Initiative invites innovative startups to apply to participate in RMI’s global climate tech accelerator Third Derivative’s clean mobile power cohort that will launch in Fall 2023.

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Introducing the Clean Mobile Power Initiative

The Clean Mobile Power Initiative

Clean Mobile Power Cohort: Accelerator Opportunity For Zero Emissions, Mobile Power Solutions

SCALE

Millions in climate finance mobilized by seven advisors

One year into their work supporting eight small island nations in accessing climate finance — often the biggest barrier to climate mitigation for frontline nations — the Climate Finance Access Network’s (CFAN) Pacific advisors have mobilized US$67 million, with an additional $364 million in the pipeline.

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Climate Finance Access Network website

Unlocking Climate Resilience in Small Island Nations

Improving Food Security for Subsistence Farmers with Climate Finance

Voices from the Front Lines: Unlocking Climate Finance in the Pacific

Securing 3x more cost-effective building codes

New building codes in Colorado will ensure new construction is more electric-ready, laying the foundation for more EV, heat pump, and on-site panel deployment. RMI mobilized the America is All In coalition and provided testimony and analysis to show how EV-ready building codes are more cost-effective than adding infrastructure later.

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New Colorado Building Energy Code Paves Way for More All-Electric Buildings, Widespread Use of EVs

Colorado’s Newest Buildings Can Speed the EV Revolution

Colorado adopts a new climate-minded statewide building code

Colorado Energy Code Board

Impact Spotlight

Modern all-electric HVAC systems in schools are game-changers for student health and learning

June 2023 was the hottest June on record since 1850. As summer temperatures stretch into fall, can schools’ climate control systems keep up?

Across the US, 41 percent of US school districts need to update or replace HVAC systems in at least half of their schools, representing about 36,000 schools nationwide.

RMI’s recent report, HVAC Choices for Student Health and Learning: What Policymakers, School Leaders, and Advocates Need to Know, argues that schools should transition to all-electric, high-performance HVAC systems — with electric heat pumps as a centerpiece — that will deliver health, learning, climate, and economic benefits for decades to come.

With nearly 700 downloads and direct distribution to more than 200 organizations, our report has received accolades from new and existing partners, strengthened policy efforts like California Schools Healthy Air, Plumbing and Efficiency Program, and landed RMI first-time meetings with influential K-12 stakeholders, including the US Department of Education; the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers; and leaders from the nation’s largest school districts.

Transitioning schools to these HVAC systems is a job for everyone: superintendents, school board members, policymakers, students, teachers, and parents. It starts with understanding how HVAC choices affect student health and learning, which guides resource allocation and funding opportunities, helping advance supportive policy at all levels.

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Four Reasons Why K-12 Schools Are Warming Up to Heat Pumps

HVAC Choices for Student Health and Learning

HVAC Choices for Student Health & Learning: What Policymakers, School Leaders, and Advocates Need to Know

HVAC Choices for Student Health and Learning webinar

Supporter Spotlight

The Lorax’s final plea aligns well with RMI’s core value of applied hope — that hope is not about some vague, far-off future but is expressed and created moment by moment through our choices.

The Dr. Seuss Foundation shares these values, acting as a catalyst for improved literacy in arts and humanities, health and well-being, animal welfare, and the environment. Foundation board member Ted Owens — also an RMI donor — is the great-nephew and namesake of Dr. Seuss, also known as Theodor Geisel. Owens says the foundation’s recent unrestricted donation supports RMI’s work to make people, companies, and governments more clean-energy and climate literate.

We thank the Dr. Seuss Foundation and Ted Owens for their generosity.

Learn about how you can support RMI’s work.

In Case You Missed It

Illuminating the realities of the energy transition

The energy transition is big, complicated, and often challenging to understand. Two new feature types on rmi.org are meant to combat that. Clean Energy 101s provide clear explanations of energy essentials, while Reality Checks help debunk myths. Help us set the record straight on misconceptions hindering the energy transition by reading and sharing them.