Grassroots Innovations and Socio-Technical System Change: Energy Retrofitting of the Residential Housing Stock

The economic and environmental transition to a low carbon economy is now at the forefront of the technology, policy, and socio-economic development discussions in the United States and internationally. A critical arena for this transformation is in buildings, which account for more than 70 percent of electricity use (USDOE 2007) and almost 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States (EIA 2006). Together with transportation, buildings are among the major determinants of the environmental impacts of cities