The Institute applied for funding to create the “Spokane Climate Resilience Project” in partnership with the Carl Maxey Center, Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners (SNAP), and the City of Spokane. The project seeks to build coordinated responses on behalf of those most impacted by extreme heat and wildfire smoke.
Type of benefits the grant will provide to the community:
- Family finances and family health: Low-income (80% AMI or 200% FPL) residents in Disadvantaged Communities will benefit from the installation of higher efficiency electric heat pumps and HVAC systems, which will reduce the consumption of home heating fuels and reduce associated climate pollutants, as well as ambient and indoor emissions of hazardous air pollutants and PM2.5. These installations will also be paired with new indoor air quality monitors to enhance community capacity to independently assess air pollution reduction options.
- Community resilience: The creation or improvement of five (5) Community Resilience Hubs in Disadvantaged Communities will enhance physical safety during natural disasters, increase community awareness of emergency preparedness, and build resilience during extreme weather events and intense wildfire smoke.
- Air quality: Disadvantaged Communities in Spokane will significantly benefit from the installation/improvement of HVAC systems with high-quality air filtration and indoor air quality monitoring. These will be installed at 300 homes and one (1) community center. Note: Our use of MERV 13 filters is estimated to reduce indoor PM2.5 pollution by 85%.
- Public awareness: Offering forty (40) community resilience trainings will increase public environmental health literacy, improve community resilience, and increase community capacity to independently assess air pollution reduction options.
- Building capacity: Offering nine (9) students from Disadvantaged Communities cost-free and incentivized access to the Gonzaga Professional Certificate in Climate Action Planning will improve the capacity of those students to serve Disadvantaged Communities through environmental justice-focused greenhouse gas mitigation and climate resilience strategies.
Community Vision
Informed by an abiding commitment to a just society and care for the planet, we seek to implement community-engaged and -directed Climate Action Strategies and Pollution Reduction Strategies to promote the flourishing of our communities, waters, and lands in the face of a changing climate. This EPA IRA Community Change Grant will have a transformative impact on individuals and families of Spokane who face daily hardships and trauma. The proposed Community Change Grant activities will reduce greenhouse gas pollution, bolster the strength of our community, improve resilience to climate change, and mitigate current and projected climate risks, especially for those most vulnerable among us. Expanding training on climate resilience and climate action planning will induce powerful network effects in transmitting environmental literacy by empowering participants to be agents of change in their families and communities.
Project Area
As defined by the EPA Community Change Program, grant recipients must pursue various "climate action strategies" and "pollution reduction strategies" that benefit what the EPA defines as "Disadvantaged Communities." The primary project sites, which will be retrofitted to serve as Level 2 Community Resilience Hubs, are indicated in Figure 1.In the case of the Spokane Climate Resilience Project, the following strategies will be funded.
Figure 1: Map of Spokane, WA project area indicating primary project sites.
Climate Action Strategies
Each of the following climate action strategies has been identified as key priorities of the Spokane Sustainability Action Plan (SAP). The SAP was developed through a three-year, community-led process that involved: 50+ volunteer citizens of the Sustainability Action Subcommittee, dozens of additional local, state, and national subject matter experts, and 1,440+ community members (the last via a survey). The SAP was officially adopted by Spokane City Council in 2021.
(For each strategy, the corresponding SAP goal is listed.)
Community Climate Action Fund
To be fully responsive to community needs and challenges and to live up to the promise in our community vision, we will design and administer a Community Climate Action Fund through which community based organizations serving Disadvantaged Communities in Spokane will propose and execute specific projects within the Climate Action Strategy areas as defined by the Community Change Grant Program.
Signup to receive additional details about the Community Climate Action Fund here.
(Supports all SAP goals.)
Energy-efficient, Healthy, Resilient Housing and Buildings
SNAP will install or retrofit 300 homes with higher efficiency electric heat pumps for Spokane residents who live in qualifying EPA IRA disadvantaged communities and who are at or below 80% Area Median Income (AMI) or 200% of Federal Poverty Level (FPL).
Installation of heat pumps in low-income residents’ homes will
- lower consumption of fossil fuels (air-sourced heat pumps are up to 300% more efficient than fossil fuel-powered versions ),
- decrease associated GHG emissions up to 93% compared to natural gas furnaces, and
- increase community resilience to current and anticipated extreme heat and wildfire smoke through access to air conditioning and better indoor air filtration that can remove as much as 95% of indoor air pollution.
(SAP Buildings & Energy goals 2 and 3.)
Community Resilience Hubs and Microgrids
The Gonzaga Climate Institute will create and administer a three-tiered training and certification program to establish the Spokane Community Resilience Network, modeled after the approach developed by Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW) in Boston, MA. See Figure 2. We will help establish ten Level 1 engagement hubs and five Level 2 relief hubs. During the grant period, the Climate Institute will offer forty community resilience trainings for Community Resilience Hub paid staff to support the development of the Spokane Climate Resilience Network. The grant will create capacity for the future establishment of Level 3 emergency hubs. Each of the Level 2 hubs will be equipped with microgrids for community energy resilience with onsite renewable energy generation and storage.
Creating and improving a three-tiered network of Community Resilience Hubs will help address important climate impacts, risks, and challenges, especially those associated with extreme heat and wildfire smoke in our project area, by enhancing resilience to natural disasters and increasing community awareness of emergency preparedness. Onsite solar and storage will also lead to lower consumption of heating fuels at these facilities, which will reduce associated greenhouse gas emissions.
(SAP Buildings & Energy goal 2; Health & Wellbeing goals 3 and 4.)
Figure 2. Spokane Climate Resilience Network three-tiered model.
Workforce Development Programs for Occupations that Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Air Pollutants
Nine (9) Spokane residents will have the opportunity to participate free of charge in the Gonzaga Professional Certificate in Climate Action Planning to learn how to create climate action plans that reduce GHG emissions and increase community resilience. (All participants must be currently unemployed, under-employed, or face financial barriers and be from or seek to serve Disadvantaged Communities.) In addition to covering the cost of tuition, a stipend will further reduce barriers to participation. Through existing partnerships with community-based organizations, Gonzaga will leverage their expertise and networks to identify candidates who demonstrate a need for workforce development and the potential and commitment to excel in the Certificate. All candidates will be assessed for financial need through variables such as enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in order to ensure the accurate identification and support of students facing barriers and economic challenges.
Expanding access to the Gonzaga Professional Certificate in Climate Action Planning will increase climate literacy among community members and expand skills required to pursue jobs in climate action planning. This will in turn lead to improved community resilience and climate action to reduce emissions.
(SAP Economic Prosperity goal 2.)
Pollution Reduction Strategies
Indoor Air Quality and Community Health Improvements
Install or retrofit improved HVAC with high-quality air filtration system and indoor air quality monitor in 300 homes within Disadvantaged Communities for residents at or below 80% AMI or 200% FPL. It is anticipated that none of these 300 homeowners currently have an HVAC system capable of using filters that capture PM2.5 pollution. (Note, these are the same 300 homes receiving heat pumps.)
Install HVAC with high-quality air filtration system at Carl Maxey Center, a Black-led and Black-centered non-profit community center to reduce indoor air pollution related both to the I-90 interstate highway and wildfire smoke.
Substantial and measurable progress towards reducing and mitigating existing/future sources of indoor air pollution will be made by adding or improving HVAC at 300 homes of Disadvantaged Community members in our Project Area and at the Carl Maxey Center. Specifically, higher-quality (MERV 13) air filtration will (1) reduce indoor exposure to PM2.5 from wildfire smoke and to other air pollutants by as much as 90% and thereby (2) reduce excess health burden related to PM2.5 exposure. Further, installation of 300 indoor air quality sensors and offering 40 wildfire smoke and community resilience preparedness trainings will (3) improve public and environmental health literacy generally and (4) community capacity to independently assess air pollution reduction options.
(SAP Buildings & Energy goals 2 and 3; Health & Wellbeing goal 4.)
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