From heatwaves to wildfires to floods, climate-related disasters are becoming more frequent and more intense. With recovery costs reaching $25 billion in 2023 – hitting lowest income Americans hardest – the need for resilient and sustainable affordable housing has never been greater.

More than twenty years ago, we launched the nation’s only green building program created with and for the affordable housing sector. Since then, we’ve transformed decades of best practices into actionable strategies that communities across the country are using to withstand and recover from natural disasters. We are continuing to lead, spearheading a first-of-its-kind collaboration across the climate and affordable housing sectors to establish a playbook for decarbonization.

26K tons of CO2
emissions prevented by Green Communities-certified homes
$300K
In passthrough funding for climate risk reduction programs

Building Resilient Futures

Our Building Resilient Futures team has a comprehensive approach that tackles the root causes of climate change while helping communities respond to the challenges they face today. As the only national nonprofit that does it all – solutions, capital and community development – under one roof, we are uniquely positioned to address all aspects of this challenge from green building to climate risk reduction and equitable decarbonization.

We are also committed to racial equity, considering the legacy of systemic racism in housing and the growing racial wealth gap and racial health disparities with every solution. All of our capital tools, technical assistance, programs and policy solutions prioritize protecting residents while avoiding the perpetuation of our longstanding inequities.

Aerial view of a rooftop garden

Green Communities

We are the most widely adopted green building criteria in LIHTC programs in the nation, with nearly 2,300 certified units nationwide and 32 states – including cities such as New York City and Washington, D.C. – requiring or incentivizing those looking to secure funding to adopt our criteria.

Learn more about our green building criteria and how to advance green affordable housing development in your area.

 

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Through our partnership with Next Home Grants, affordable housing developments all across the country can attain dual certification under Green Communities Criteria and WELL, which helps ensure this critical sector has the opportunity to take the lead on both sustainability and health.
Rachel Hodgdon, President & CEO, IWBI 
A person cleaning up from a storm

Reduce Risk

We’ve transformed decades of best practices into actionable strategies communities across the country are using to withstand and recover from natural disasters.

Join the more than 150 multifamily affordable housing professionals who’ve participated in our Resilience Academies, regional cohorts tailored to the unique hazards different communities are facing across the country.

You can also explore our Climate Risk Reduction Resource Hub that provides a collection of climate risk reduction tools that are helping affordable housing developers, owners and operators make their properties more resilient.

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Climate Resilience Academies
Our cohort-based training academies offer tools and strategies to owners and operators who want to make their properties more resilient to environmental risks.
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Equitable Decarbonization

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) directs nearly $400 billion in federal funding to lowering the nation’s carbon emissions by the end of this decade. A total reduction of emissions is a relatively new focus for construction that goes beyond electrification or energy efficiency – and there is no playbook.

Leveraging more than 20 years across experience in equitable decarbonization, green building and climate resilience, we are leading a collaboration across the climate and affordable housing sectors to create decarbonization-related programs that will decarbonize 1.25 million units by 2030.

We've also partnered with RMI and Housing Partnership Network to launch the Affordable Housing Decarbonization Hub. This industry-leading resource is designed to support an equitable transition to more efficient, climate-ready multifamily homes. The hub has everything you need all in one place, from a comprehensive knowledge library to real-time updates and even access to a decarbonization expert who can answer your specific questions.

Shaun Donovan, CEO and president, at a conference table with people seated in the background
ADVANCING THE FIELD
Advocating for Climate Resources

Our practice-informed guidance leverages more than four decades worth of successful advocacy at all levels of government. We are currently advocating for policies and building requirements that use forward-looking climate data to create comfortable, safe housing in the face of changing participation patterns, heat stressors and more extreme weather events.

Learn more about our federal policy priorities, including advocating for equitable implementation of Inflation Reduction Act funding and permanent authorization of Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery.

Aerial view of a rooftop garden
The US Capitol building
Tall homes with solar panels on the roofs
50-50 background color
Deep Yellow
Featured Program
Accessible, Equitable Decarbonization

Power Forward Communities, the landmark coalition that Next Home Grants co-leads with some of the country’s most trusted community development, climate and housing organizations, has been awarded a $2 billion National Clean Investment Fund grant to make America’s homes healthier, more resilient, and more affordable.

Learn more about this unprecedented effort to equitably decarbonize potentially millions of homes through programming and financial supports that will ensure no community is left behind in the clean- energy transition.

House under construction
Join us!
We have been leading the field in resilient solutions for affordable housing for more than two decades. Together, we can continue to push for solutions that meet the challenges of our changing climate.
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