A Shared Language - Reaching an Interdisciplinary Understanding of “Equity"
What is Equity?
A simple google search reveals the definition of equity as predominantly related to one of two things – "finance" or "quality of treatment". While most of Wall Street would describe shareholders' equity as the value attributed to them as owners of a business, the definition is approached with a different lens in social justice considerations. It emphasizes the "how" and "who" of procedures and access to resources. Equity has been used interchangeably with "fairness" and "justice" in different disciplines. While the broad definitions appear to be the same, contextual analysis indicates that fairness can apply to equality and equity. Though equality ensures everyone has access, it does not account for privilege and advantage. While equity tries to account for this, justice seeks to reshape the landscape. Think about splitting a pizza with friends; equality sees that everyone gets an equal amount. However, equity checks for who came in hungry. A typical illustration of these many concepts is shown below
Photo credit: University of Bath
Relating Social Equity to the Energy Transition
In social justice literature, the concept of “equity” loosely describes situations where an attempt is made to ensure parity for all in resource distribution and cost-sharing. In these early stages of the renewable energy transition, rising global protests on racial justice like the Black Lives Matter Movement and environmental justice movements like Fridays for Future highlight the importance of centering equity in energy policy. Now is as good as any time before but better than any time in the future to get started!
Beyond the broad definition of equity and the preconceived notions of who is most affected are marginalized communities' lived realities. One could ponder, do energy inequities reside in specific locations? And can I substitute a bowl of chowder for one hour of heating? It is probably laughable to think you could knock or ring the bell on some door and be greeted by inequities, but this isn't a far illustration from the lived experiences of some families in marginalized communities. The burden on overall family income has pushed some households to choose between heating or eating; in extreme cases, some families have reported having to keep their ovens on to ensure heating.
Another visible avenue of energy inequity is housing. Housing costs, quality and zoning laws associated with historical redlining increases the exposure of marginalized and low-income communities to exclusionary health effects arising from poor air quality and energy inefficient buildings. Added to the constraints above, effects of racially discriminatory housing policy have limited wealth generation through property investment by black families. This is evidenced by homeownership rates disaggregated by race; where statistics show that Blacks and Hispanics are less likely to own homes. Homeownership is currently a significant determinant of agency and decision-making power in residential energy demand. Homeowners stand to benefit from solar incentives and are better positioned to retrofit or improve building design to align with more efficient standards. In all, there is overwhelming evidence that ensuring equity requires a multidisciplinary approach to evaluate its many heads (like hydra in the marvel cinematic universe).
Measuring Energy Equity
Several attempts have been made to develop metrics that capture stakeholder perspectives, such as the Justice in 100 Metrics report by the Initiative for Energy Justice and the well-cited review on Energy Justice by Dr. Jenkins. Though these works support the overall understanding of equity, more effort is needed to unpack disciplinary actions and knowledge. For engineers like myself, the question arises on quantifying and factoring these equity concerns into mathematical models. How can optimization models begin to capture and reflect challenges faced in marginalized communities? Baker and Nock, in their paper, explore methods of capturing values that could serve as input data for optimization models. How an economist, anthropologist, or geoscientist defines and quantifies equity in their research might differ from the engineering approach. ELEVATE’s interdisciplinary team is working to reach a convergent definition of energy equity. Our researchers are writing a review of the literature on the energy transition and noting the similarities and differences in how each discipline approaches equity and justice issues. Stay tuned for the results of this review!
Centering social equity in the energy transition will require the engagement of all stakeholders, policymakers, and researchers. As we commemorate Indigenous People’s Day this week, take some time to reflect on how your energy transition research does or does not consider historically excluded communities. Do you gather data directly from marginalized stakeholders in your qualitative research? Do your models or machine learning algorithms account for differences in race or income?
We would be excited to read in the comments, the strategies you have deployed to incorporate and amplify voices of local communities in energy equity research!
