Skip to content
Grist home
Support nonprofit news

Articles by Alison F. Takemura, Canary Media

Alison F. Takemura is staff writer at Canary Media. She untangles thorny concepts in the clean energy revolution to make it something everyone can understand and embrace.

Featured Article

This story was originally published by Canary Media and is republished with permission.

Airbnb has a new program to help hosts slash carbon pollution by offering them cash rebates to weatherize and electrify their vacation-rental homes — available, for now, in Massachusetts.

While Airbnb successfully launched similar programs in the U.K. and France in 2022 — with enthusiastic responses from thousands of hosts, according to the company — this is the first of its kind in the U.S.

The incentives from Airbnb include up to $500 for energy-efficiency upgrades, such as insulation, and up to $2,000 for air-source heat-pump installations.

That $2,500 carrot tackles emissions as well as hosts’ energy costs. ​“This program would save me a ton of money,” Elle Michelle, an Airbnb host in Massachusetts, said in a statement. ​“As a host in a home built in the 1970s, I’ve been wanting to make upgrades to... Read more