Reducing Building Emissions, Supporting Workers and Communities
Buildings are responsible for over 30% of Illinois’ greenhouse gas emissions. Roughly half of these building emissions come from the electricity they consume and the other half (15%) come from the fossil fuels they burn on site (the orange wedge in the figure to the right). The state is making progress towards 100% carbon-free electric power, through a combination of renewable energy development and existing nuclear power plants. But what about the natural gas and other fossil fuels that heat our buildings, water and food?
Illinois is actively debating how to reduce on-site emissions from buildings while protecting workers, managing costs, and ensuring equitable outcomes. To support these decisions, the Climate Jobs Institute’s Building Electrification Study seeks to inform decision-making with research that focuses on workers and community impacts.
What We’re Researching and How It Can Support Your Work
Applied research to inform policy, workforce planning, and equitable building decarbonization
Our study focuses on building electrification as an important but often contested aspect of building decarbonization, the process of reducing or eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from the construction, operation and maintenance of homes and buildings. Building decarbonization approaches include energy efficiency, using renewable energy sources, and building electrification–switching from fossil-fuel-powered systems to electric alternatives like air-source or ground-source heat pumps. Our research focuses on residential and commercial building-level electrification solutions (e.g., air source and ground source heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, induction stoves) as well as neighborhood-scale solutions, such as thermal energy networks.
Though we focus on building electrification, we acknowledge that multiple building decarbonization approaches are necessary and should be prioritized based on their benefits and costs to communities and workers.
We seek to produce practical, policy-relevant resources — not abstract modeling — so stakeholders can better understand costs, workforce needs, market barriers, and implementation tradeoffs.
During 2025, we conducted background research to characterize Illinois’ building stock, assess available electrification technologies, and summarize existing policies that support electrification. This year, we’re listening to stakeholders about adoption and workforce considerations related to building electrification. Through this research, we will generate actionable insights and helpful resources that can be used for planning, policy development, and future research.
What This Project Examines
Our work addresses three core questions:
- How do different electrification pathways affect jobs, costs, and communities?
- In considering Illinois’ building stock and existing electrification technologies and costs, what are feasible and cost-effective pathways to reduce emissions?
- How can policies support building decarbonization and electrification in a way that benefits communities, workers, and the environment?
Project Components
Our work consists of several key areas of research. This research is ongoing, with initial results and resources to be released in summer, 2026.
Building Stock Analysis
We’re analyzing Illinois’ residential, commercial, and multi-family building stock statewide, considering things like age, size, heating systems used, and more. We plan to produce a report and public dataset that can support additional analysis and local planning.
We’re also analyzing permit data for a few municipalities to identify heat pump adoption rates and patterns.
Technology & Adoption Analysis
We are reviewing electrification technologies that are used in commercial and residential buildings: air-source and ground source heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, and electric cooking and laundry equipment. We’re examining costs, performance, and the limitations of these technologies for new and existing buildings.
We are interviewing residents, contractors, and building trades representatives to explore adoption considerations and barriers to electrification. We’re developing case studies highlighting real-world electrification experiences, from the perspectives of workers and building owners.
Workforce Considerations
We are reaching out to contractors, labor leaders, and industry representatives to better understand workforce challenges and training needs. We want to understand the workforce that is involved in building electrification. We’re exploring both the jobs that will grow with widespread electrification as well as the jobs that may transform or even go away.
We’re also identifying existing training programs that prepare workers to perform building electrification work. We hope to identify gaps that need to be filled to train workers for quality jobs related to building decarbonization.
Economic & Employment Analysis
We are performing economic impact analysis for different Illinois electrification scenarios, capturing the impacts on employment, regional economies, and costs.
Policy Research
Our policy research synthesizes existing policies in Illinois and other states and making recommendations related to equity, workforce and labor, and quality control.
How This Research Can Support You
This work can help:
- Policy makers evaluate tradeoffs, timelines, and evidence to support new policy or program design.
- Labor and workforce leaders plan for training, certifications, and workforce transitions.
- Utilities and agencies assess program design challenges and data gaps.
- Community and workforce organizations better understand training, access, and implementation barriers.
The background resources we are creating are designed to be modular — specific reports, datasets, or scenarios can be highlighted or extended to meet particular planning needs.
Why This Matters
Building electrification is not only a climate strategy — it is a jobs, affordability, and implementation challenge. By grounding electrification and decarbonization discussions in Illinois-specific data and real-world experience, this project aims to support decisions that are durable, equitable, and actionable.
Learn More
We’re seeking input about how our ongoing research related to building electrification can support you. We want to ensure that the research questions we are seeking to answer and the resources we produce are useful to stakeholders. Contact Linda Larsen at lflarsen@illinois.edu to learn more about our research provide input about our work.
Stay tuned for upcoming engagement events and other ways to contribute your perspective.
Our Partners
- Indoor Climate Research and Training Center (Champaign County Regional Planning Commission): Experts in residential energy efficiency, electrification, and training for Illinois’ Weatherization Assistance Program.
- Colorado State University: Experts in adoption of electrification technologies and environmental policy.
- EnergySense Resilience Center: Specialists in commercial energy efficiency, workforce development, and energy policy.
- Sandy Dall’Erba, Professor of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at UIUC: Lead economist for the study.