Five Steps for Utilities to Foster Authentic Community Engagement

RMI outlines five strategic steps for US electric utilities to foster equitable community engagement: identifying underserved populations using measurable criteria, compensating community participants for their expertise, ensuring linguistic and cultural accessibility in outreach, partnering with communities for program design and wealth building, and co-creating metrics to track progress.

• Utilities should identify historically underserved communities using measurable criteria and data, tailoring the list of vulnerable populations to the specific needs of their service territory. For example, Puget Sound Energy identified the urban heat island effect as a specific vulnerability for its urban residents, whereas PacifiCorp focused on different needs for its rural territories.
• Meaningful participation requires that utilities compensate underrepresented community members and organizations for their lived experience and expertise. Portland General Electric implemented a plan that includes compensation for community-based organizations, as well as providing food and childcare for in-person events.
• Engagement strategies must be linguistically and culturally accessible to remove barriers to participation. This includes providing live interpretation and translated surveys, as PacifiCorp did in Yakima and Walla Walla counties, and employing "trusted community messengers"—local coordinators with deep experience interfacing with the community—to facilitate two-way dialogue.
• Utilities can promote equity by partnering with communities to design programs that build local wealth and distribute benefits. Examples include Xcel Energy's collaboration with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 111 for worker retraining during coal plant retirements, and Portland General Electric's commitment to increase spending with diverse suppliers to 15 percent by the end of 2022.
• Progress toward equity goals should be tracked using metrics co-created with the community. Because utilities may lack specific data, such as hyper-local air quality information, they should partner with external organizations; for instance, ComEd is exploring a partnership with Aclima for block-by-block air quality data collection.

APA

RMI (2022). Five Steps for Utilities to Foster Authentic Community Engagement. https://rmi.org/resources/five-steps-for-utilities-to-foster-authentic-community-engagement/

Chicago

RMI. Five Steps for Utilities to Foster Authentic Community Engagement. 2022. https://rmi.org/resources/five-steps-for-utilities-to-foster-authentic-community-engagement/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Five Steps for Utilities to Foster Authentic Community Engagement |date=2 June 2022 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/five-steps-for-utilities-to-foster-authentic-community-engagement/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2022five, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Five Steps for Utilities to Foster Authentic Community Engagement}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2022}, month = jun, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/five-steps-for-utilities-to-foster-authentic-community-engagement/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }