Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

The project purpose is to create a Georgia Carbon Compact, a movement of key stakeholders, starting with the business community, who are committed to activating and scaling the carbon reduction solutions identified and assessed through the Drawdown Georgia initiative. By deploying best practices in collective impact, the proposed Compact will advance social and cultural pathways towards a common decarbonization agenda and integrate equity principles throughout.

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Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

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Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

This project (and the Phase I Drawdown Georgia work that precedes it) incorporates equity explicitly as a pillar of our business engagement. For example, in determining which companies should shape the Georgia Carbon Compact and guide collaborations on decarbonization solutions, we will be able to leverage our Phase 1 findings in helping companies and others to shape commitments that are equity-centered. In our Phase 1 work, we assessed each solution to identify potential benefits and concerns across these dimensions by engaging subject-matter experts, social justice advocates, and industry stakeholders. We focused special attention on the equity dimension of the Drawdown solutions, noting that implementation paths will only be successful if they ensure access to solution benefits and offer substantive improvements against the status quo of social inequities. 
There are two major focus areas that we plan to address through the Compact and in current complimentary projects that are underway. The first focus area is solution affordability and access. For example, rooftop solar is one of the leading electricity generation solutions, but solar installations typically are only affordable to higher income households, thereby reducing benefits and possibly elevating costs for customers with low income. In addition to these cost barriers, there are significant racial and ethnic differences in rooftop solar adoption in the United States (even after controlling for income). Through the Compact, we will have the opportunity to engage utilities and others to address these challenges through solution design and implementation as well as by advancing programs geared specifically to offering equity-centered solutions. The second focus area (that, by definition, involves the business community) relates to workforce diversity and growth in businesses that represent underrepresented individuals and groups. For example, the 2019 Solar Jobs Census found only 26% of the solar workforce are women, and 73.2% of the solar workforce is white. Georgia ranks below national levels in terms of diversity, as women are only 18.9% of the solar workforce, and 76.6% of the workforce are white. 
In addition to engaging businesses on these challenges and opportunities through the Compact directly, we are already working closely on these items through a complementary effort with nonprofit social justice organizations, the Partnership for Southern Equity, adjunct faculty with Atlanta Metropolitan State College, and the Advancing Justice for All action group of the RCE Greater Atlanta‚Äîa United Nations University recognized Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) on Education for Sustainable Development. 
Finally, our project is part of an inclusive Drawdown Georgia movement that is underway in our state through an easy to access website with solution descriptions, events, and civic dinners, use of the Groopit crowd-solving application, and social media engagement, as well as via continuing work on emissions tracking, solution activation, and other equity-focused projects.

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