The Cal-THRIVES project was led by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) from 2018-2021 This was an interdisciplinary study combining social science, community outreach, and building performance modeling The research team included a social scientist (Indicia Consulting), a community-based organization (West Fresno Family Resource Center) and California university researchers (USC) Developed a toolkit for heat resilience

1. Engaging All Voices
Behavior, Energy & Climate (BECC) Conference
November 9 and 13-16, 2022
#BECC2022
Convened by:
1

2. Convened by:
#BECC2022
Learnings from Community
Engagement: A heat resilience
project in Fresno
November 15, 2022
Susan Mazur-Stommen | Founder/Indicia Consulting
Max Wei | Research Scientist/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

3. #BECC2022
California Toolkit for Heat Resilience
in Underserved Environments
• The Cal-THRIVES project was led by Lawrence Berkeley National
Lab (LBNL) from 2018-2021
• This was an interdisciplinary study combining social science,
community outreach, and building performance modeling
• The research team included a social scientist (Indicia Consulting), a
community-based organization (West Fresno Family Resource
Center) and California university researchers (USC)
• Developed a toolkit for heat resilience which is housed here:
https://energyanalysis.lbl.gov/cal-thrives
3

4. #BECC2022
Community
Outreach
4
Collecting and responding to community
feedback key to understanding how
residents cope with extreme heat
Goal one was to identify resident needs,
preferences, and barriers to proposed
cooling strategies
Goal two was to assess views regarding
cooling centers; and to inform our
modeling assumptions

5. #BECC2022
Methods
5
Two community meetings, at start and end of
project.
• The initial community meeting was to inform the community
about the project, and to recruit for focus groups and IDIs
Four (4) focus groups
• two general pop., one seniors, one Spanish speaking.
11 IDIs
• conducted in 2019 (and some in 2020 via Zoom)
88 phone interviews with residents
• Fresno EOC helped with phone survey, shared energy audit
data

6. #BECC2022
Data Collection
• Our research shows homes without AC (many have
ineffective swamp coolers) get dangerously hot and
increasingly so with climate change (95-106 °F in Fresno
during worst case heat waves)
• How do residents cope with extreme heat
• What barriers and challenges do residents face
• Which types of cooling measures are they willing to
consider
6

7. #BECC2022
Confusion
Around
Fans
7
There was confusion and questions from both
the English and Spanish speaking groups.
People did not equate using fans with using
less overall electricity – in reality:
• Fans use very low power
• A window AC unit uses 10x+ power
Some people asked what we meant by fans
Someone asked, "what do I do when I move
rooms?

8. #BECC2022
Recommendations: Fans
• There is a need for education
on cooling with basic figures
and messaging
• “Fans can allow you to run your
AC less by turning up your
thermostat” (with a simple
illustration)
• “Fans use very little energy and
the air movement around your
body can really help to cool you
down.”
8

9. #BECC2022
Cooling
Centers
• While many people knew about cooling centers
as a resource, they were generally perceived to
be negative, and this only increased during
COVID 19
• Everyone in the Focus Groups was familiar with
the concept of Cooling Centers and knew where
they were located. However, only two out of 28
participants agreed that they would visit a
Cooling Center
• Many residents, particularly seniors, prefer to
balance ‘mild’ discomfort from heat for the
privacy and security of home
• Cooling centers are not an effective counter-
balance to this issue
9

10. #BECC2022
Conclusions: Cooling Centers
• The majority of residents prefer to balance mild discomfort from heat for
the privacy and security of home.
• Several respondents voiced concerns about attendees who were not in
their shared demographic or lifecycle group.
• For example, seniors reported annoyance at young kids running amok;
while housed residents reported concerns about unhoused attendees
• Most respondents do not report going to any common location during heat
waves
• e.g. they do not report heading to ‘the mall’ or ‘the movies.’ Rather
there are myriad idiosyncratic solutions
10

11. #BECC2022
Recommendations: Cooling
Centers
11
We recommend cooling centers be expanded into emergency response centers
AKA ‘resilience hubs’ for the confluence of acute events, e.g. wildfires w extreme
air pollution in conjunction with extreme heat events
Upgrading cooling center HVAC with higher HEPA-type filtration would assist with
both particulate inhalation as well as airborne transmission of viruses, which is a
concern
Finally, we think there might be a role for city agencies such as Parks and
Recreation to take advantage of lower rents in malls, which already serve as
transportation hubs, and typically have high-end, large scale HVAC installations

12. Indiciaconsulting.com
susanmazur
Facebook/indiciaconsulting
Twıtter/indiciainfo
info@indiciaconsulting.com
https://www.linkedin.com/compan
y/indicia-consulting