Building Electrification

Building Electrification

Building Electrification

Building electrification can help solve some of the nation’s top challenges—creating millions of family-supporting jobs, lowering air pollution, improving resilience during extreme weather, and dramatically reducing greenhouse gas pollution.


Transitioning to clean and healthy fossil fuel-free buildings plays a critical role in meeting our climate goals and protecting public health. Efficient electric appliances like heat pumps for heating and cooling, hot water heaters, and induction stoves require far less energy than fossil fuel-powered ones and produce zero pollution, while saving people money on their energy bills.

Paired with energy efficiency retrofits, including weatherization and electrical panel upgrades, building electrification can reduce household energy burdens and make sure families can stay safe in extreme weather. The federal governments and many states are enacting incentives to make these types of improvements affordable for all income levels, and Sierra Club is working hard for an equitable transition to all-electric buildings. 

Smart grid technologies and modern electric appliances are critical to creating jobs, reducing consumer costs, improving air quality and health, and making our communities safer and more resilient.

EnergySage Solar Calculator

Calculate your solar savings!

In partnership with EnergySage, this solar calculator can help estimate your upfront costs, potential savings, and financing options — no commitment required.

Solar Calculator

A household's access to energy is essential to health, comfort and well-being. But many households suffer from a high energy burden and struggle to pay their energy bills.

Energy Burden Calculator

The Energy Burden Calculator can be used to help you estimate the percentage of your income that is spent on energy expenses (electricity and home fuels). Generally, a household energy burden over 6% is considered unaffordable.

See Your Energy Burden
November 19, 2024

Today, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the final round of funding for the Inflation Reduction Act’s Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP), marking the delivery of more than $1.4 billion to provide clean,…

November 12, 2024

BALTIMORE, MD – Buildings play an unexpectedly large role in contributing to dangerous levels of smog pollution, according to new modeling from Sonoma Technology in a report commissioned by the Sierra Club. Smog pollution, otherwise known as ground-…

October 10, 2024

A new policy primer, released today by Sierra Club and Climate & Community Institute, lays out why and how decision-makers at the local, state, and federal level can prioritize tenant protections as efforts to decarbonize buildings gain momentum…

September 10, 2024

Denver, CO - The Sierra Club, represented by attorneys with Earthjustice, filed a motion to intervene in a second lawsuit targeting Denver’s programs to reduce building sector emissions that contribute to the city’s poor air quality and to…

August 22, 2024

TALENT, OR — As extreme weather, including scorching heat waves, threatens large parts of Oregon, Talent’s City Council voted yesterday to pass Resolution 2024-097-R, which encourages upgrades of homes and nonresidential buildings so they…