From the Street Up: Building Equitable Climate Responses One Neighbourhood at a Time

Drawing on qualitative findings from the Bay Area Climate Change Council’s 2025 Community Equity

Workshops and the resulting What We Heard: Thematic Analysis and Energy Justice in the Bay Area

reports, this presentation centers the lived experiences of equity‐deserving residents in Hamilton

and Burlington—mid‐sized communities with both urban and rural identities. Participants shared

that effective responses to climate change are not only through centralized planning, but through

everyday systems of care, trust, and connection that operate close to home. The talk argues that