Energy justice is a priority across today’s energy landscape, but the term often carries different meanings.
For some, it’s about affordability. For others, it’s about community participation, climate resilience, or targeted investment. That breadth reflects the complexity of delivering energy justice in practice—and why clarity matters. How we define energy justice shapes who benefits, how solutions are designed, and what progress looks like.
Energy justice is, at its core, a response to well-meaning but incomplete efforts to make energy systems more equitable. For example, some programs offer temporary relief but don’t fully address the systemic gaps that create the need in the first place.[1] The phrase “a seat at the table” comes up often in energy justice conversations, but what does that actually mean? In practice, it’s about shifting power: ensuring the people most impacted by energy systems have a meaningful role in shaping them—and in the outcomes they create. This approach is grounded in two key dimensions:
Procedural justice emphasizes participation. It’s not just about designing solutions for underserved communities but empowering them to shape those solutions themselves.
Distributive justice focuses on where benefits and investments go, advocating for direct support in communities and ensuring access to energy efficiency benefits.[2]
At ILLUME, we use this dual lens to guide our work. We’ve partnered with utilities and energy organizations across the country to make equity not just a goal, but a foundation for how programs are shaped, measured, and improved.
Through this work, we’ve seen what it takes to move energy justice from principle to practice. It calls for rethinking how we define value, remove barriers, and design for durability—so programs don’t just exist, they succeed.
Below are a few insights we’ve carried forward, grounded in real-world projects and ready to be put in practice:
Measure what matters to communities,
not just utilities
To design truly equitable programs, we need to look beyond traditional cost-effectiveness metrics. When we measure outcomes like health, resilience, and wellbeing, we give programs the justification they need to reach the people who need them the most.
ILLUME supported New York State in defining and developing measurement approaches to assess the impact of clean energy and energy efficiency investments in Disadvantaged Communities. Per the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act), New York agencies, authorities, and entities must direct at least 35%—with a goal of 40%—of the overall benefits of these investments to disadvantage communities. Our team helped establish criteria for characterizing disadvantage communities and created a framework for non-energy impacts to assess equity-related progress.
We’re now applying similar approaches in California, working with program administrators to identify and measure non-energy benefits for their Equity Segment programs. By quantifying outcomes like community resilience and health, these metrics help capture the full value of programs and support deeper investment in historically underserved communities—advancing energy justice by design.
Make programs easier to access,
not just available
Programs can’t be equitable if people can’t navigate them. Removing administrative hurdles like paperwork, redundant verification, and confusing eligibility requirements isn’t just a customer service fix—it’s an energy justice strategy.
In 2024, ILLUME evaluated Seattle City Light’s cross-utility Utility Assistance Programs for income-eligible residents. We recommended strategies like auto-enrollment, streamlined verification, self-attestation during their application process, and better coordination with other assistance programs. Each of these changes increases energy justice by reducing the burden on customers and making it more likely that utility support reaches those who need it.
“It has saved my life. Given me money in my budget for food and medication. There’s no other way to put it. Thank you.”
The majority (89%) of lapsed participants said the utility discount program helped them pay their utility bills on time and avoid carrying a balance.
Design for staying power,
not just policy
Policies change, but communities still need support. Building equity into the core of program design—not just through federal initiatives—ensures that important work continues even when political winds turn.
ILLUME contributed early research to support Justice40, the Biden administration’s initiative to direct 40% of federal energy investments to disadvantaged communities. But the initiative was defunded in 2025, before the work could be fully realized. The rollback, along with cuts to programs like the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), left many vulnerable communities with fewer resources just as energy prices climbed. This moment shows why equity frameworks must be built to endure, and why it’s often up to utilities and local leaders to carry that work forward when federal support falters.
Energy justice lives in the everyday decisions we make about how programs are designed, who they serve, and what outcomes we prioritize.
As states pursue ambitious goals for electrification and carbon reduction, equity must be built in from the start. That means expanding what we measure, removing persistent barriers, and building programs that endure. It means designing with communities, not just for them.
[1] Energy efficiency and energy justice for U.S. low-income households: An analysis of multifaceted challenges and potential – ScienceDirect
[2] energy_justice_-_what_it_means_and_how_to_integrate_it_into_state_regulation_of_electricity_markets.pdf
[3] Energy Justice and the Energy Transition
[4] Energy justice beyond the wire: Exploring the multidimensional inequities of the electrical power grid in the United States – ScienceDirect
