Energy efficiency has become one of the primary tools for reducing buildings’ carbon footprints, but it does more than just advance clean energy goals.

A recent study by the American Council on an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) demonstrates that building energy efficiency can also benefit entire neighborhoods.

“Beyond the Building: Strengthening Neighborhood Resilience Through Energy Efficiency Programs” was published on July 10. The report discusses the findings of a study conducted on the effects of efficiency retrofits on approximately 4,000 commercial buildings and 40,000 households in southeast Westchester County, N.Y.

The study looked at the combined effect of energy efficiency and electrification because the two work best together. According to the study’s authors, electrification without efficiency improvements will increase electricity demand, but when combined, the two help minimize building loads, reduce required equipment capacities and avoid electrical infrastructure upgrades.

Electrification includes such upgrades as the use of electric heat pumps, and efficiency retrofits include building shell improvements such as increased insulation.

The study also focused on the effect of these improvements on “grid resiliency,” which it defines as the ability to avoid disruptions during extreme events.

Furthermore, the study looked at these effects on a neighborhood level, not just by building. Within those parameters, the study found that pairing building envelope measures with heat pump upgrades and implementing them in multiple neighborhood buildings can reduce peak summer demand by 8% and lower the hours of outages without demand-response programs by 63% during the peak summer month.

According to the study’s authors, the findings are especially relevant to utilities, who they argue should shift the focus of their planning to place greater emphasis on the effects of programs on resiliency at the neighborhood level. The authors argue that when utilities look only at the resiliency effect of efficiency upgrades at the single building level or at the level of the grid, “they undervalue the collective impact at the neighborhood scale—where multiple buildings have energy efficiency solutions.”