The world is observing unprecedented, devastating, yet growing effects of climate change. GDP has been slow for decades; Covid-19 has disturbed the economy; energy prices are rising; unemployment remains high; consumer debt and budget deficit are climbing; wealth inequality is at an all-time high. Still, 89% of the energy consumed in the United States comes from non-renewable sources. Amid this challenging time, the question this work tries to answer is how can we protect our climate and environment through innovative development policies and practices that concurrently promote social equity and preserve economic viability? To answer this question, I explore five sustainable housing goals: climate protection, policy innovation, environmental protection, social equity, and economic growth.
I use data and empirical analysis to show sustainable development challenges and conflicts are significant. I share lessons learned from cities and states that act as pioneers of climate and environmental protection; I explore a balanced integration of economic, environmental, and social goals through zero-energy building in the traditionally siloed policy sector of low-income housing; I show that a lack of consideration for social equity can turn environmental initiatives into luxury goods that surrender equity to profitability; I show that a lack of consideration for economic viability can lead to underinvestment in environmental and social equity initiatives.
The overall insights derived from this study suggest that state housing agencies and local governments, particularly in large cities and in communities that are more vulnerable to environmental risks, are in a unique position to stimulate and drive climate and environmental protection. Significant between-agency differences in housing policy innovation persist, and future policy innovation research should explore factors that impact the utility of policy innovation and barriers the environmental sustainability movement faces at the organization level and beyond. Existing challenges to distributed energy generation need further study. This research highlights the need for greater policy attention to affordable housing needs in core urban areas, neighborhood diversity, and costs of gentrification. / Doctor of Philosophy / The world is now observing unprecedented, devastating, yet growing effects of climate change. Covid-19 has slowed the economy; energy prices are rising; unemployment remains high; consumer debt and budget deficit are climbing, and wealth inequality has reached an all-time high. While renewable energy is rapidly growing in worldwide adoption, still 89% of the energy consumed in the United States comes from non-renewable sources. Sustainability thinking encourages integrated, interdisciplinary approaches and policies that holistically address multiple contemporary problems. Sustainable development requires a balanced integration of economic, environmental, and social justice goals with traditionally siloed policy sectors, such as housing, as a goal of governance. Policy integration is deemed necessary because some policy sectors – like environment and climate – alone are not capable of achieving all objectives and, thus, must work with other sectors. Despite the importance of sustainability to the future of the planet, there are inherent economic, environmental, and social justice conflicts involved in reaching sustainable development, and conflict resolution has not been easy.
The overarching question in this work is how can we protect our climate and environment through innovative housing policies and practices that promote social equity and preserve economic viability? I explore five glocal sustainable housing goals, namely climate protection, policy innovation, environmental protection, social equity, and economic growth.
The overall insights derived from this study suggest that state housing agencies and local governments, particularly in large cities and in communities vulnerable to environmental risks, are in a unique position to stimulate and drive climate and environmental protection. Significant between-agency differences in housing policy innovation persist, and future policy innovation research should explore factors that impact the utility of policy innovation and barriers the environmental sustainability movement faces at the organization level and beyond. This research highlights the need for greater policy attention to affordable housing needs in core urban areas, neighborhood diversity, and costs of gentrification. There are barriers to distributed energy generation that need to be studied.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/112134 |
| Date | 19 April 2021 |
| Creators | Jeddi Yeganeh, Armin |
| Contributors | Myers-Lawson School of Construction, McCoy, Andrew Patton, Reichard, Georg, Hankey, Steven C., Schenk, Todd |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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