We don’t always realize that climate change has direct impacts on public health and people’s lives. Inefficient, poor-quality housing is directly harming people, and the deadly impact of extreme heat will only grow as climate change worsens.

Monique—who is participating in ISC’s Advancing Equitable Building Decarbonization (AEBD) project—learned this through her uncle, who passed away in his home in the Bronx, New York, in the summer of 2022. Her family had lived in that building for decades, and like many pre-war NYC buildings, it didn’t have air conditioning and had limited ventilation. Although her uncle had the financial means to move, other members of the family could not, like many in the Bronx.

It didn’t seem like a problem until that summer, when her uncle suddenly passed away. The cause? Exposure to extreme heat. But the significance of that statement didn’t quite register for Monique—what did that mean, exactly?

Monique works for Cornerstone Community Development Corporation, a St. Louis-based organization working to provide an equitable opportunity for quality, affordable housing to those who would not otherwise have it. She and her organization are part of the St. Louis Leadership Alliance through ISC’s Advancing Equitable Building Decarbonization project. At an AEBD Leadership Alliance meeting, Monique recently came to the realization that inefficient, poor-quality housing—exactly the type of housing that AEBD is working to improve—combined with the extreme heat exacerbated by climate change, was behind her uncle’s passing.

As Monique put it, “I remember feeling embarrassed that I never realized how it was the building that killed him. This was the home that I had grown up in, and it brought me joy and a sense of safety. It made me realize that environmental work isn’t just about saving the whales—it’s about making changes that really impact peoples’ lives. And I also wondered, am I perpetuating the same problem for the tenants that still
live in that building?”