Primer series
The SDG 7 primer series explores energy and social determinants of health: how energy access, affordability, and infrastructure shape patient outcomes, medical device use, indoor air quality, and chronic stress in underserved communities.
Follow new publications via the RSS feed.
Primers
Draft
Cooling Is the New Heating: Heat, Health, and the Air-Conditioning Gap
Adler Archer, JD · 2026
For most of the modern history of energy assistance, the danger to watch was cold. Programs were built around winter, around keeping the heat on, around the documented harms of a cold home. That framing is increasingly out of step with current conditions. Extreme heat is now the fastest-growing weather-related health threat in much of the country, and the systems meant to protect vulnerable households were largely…
Read primer →Draft
Geothermal Energy and the Social Determinants of Health
Adler Archer, JD · 2026
Most people picture the social determinants of health as housing, food, income, and access to care. Energy rarely makes the headline list, yet it sits underneath several of the others. The temperature inside a home, the reliability of the power that runs a medical device, and the share of a household budget swallowed by a utility bill all shape health long before anyone reaches a clinic.
Read primer →Draft
Power Reliability as Clinical Infrastructure
Adler Archer, JD · 2026
A growing share of serious medical care now happens at home rather than in a hospital. This is mostly good news. People recover better and live more independently in their own homes, and home-based care costs the system less. But it quietly rests on an assumption that rarely gets examined: that the electricity will stay on.
Read primer →Draft
The Energy Burden Map: Who Pays the Most, and Why It Tracks Health
Adler Archer, JD · 2026
Health systems have grown comfortable asking patients about housing and food. They rarely ask about the energy bill, yet that number shapes the same outcomes. When a household spends too large a share of its income keeping the lights and heat on, the consequences spill into nutrition, medication adherence, housing stability, and the chronic stress that wears the body down over time.
Read primer →Draft
Weatherization as Preventive Medicine
Adler Archer, JD · 2026
Insulation, air sealing, and a tighter building envelope are usually filed under energy efficiency. This primer argues they belong, just as accurately, under preventive medicine. A home that holds its temperature, stays dry, and resists mold is a home that produces fewer asthma flare-ups, fewer respiratory infections, less cardiovascular strain, and better mental health. The upgrade that lowers the energy bill is …
Read primer →Draft
Who Owns the Community Microgrid? Energy as Governed Infrastructure
Adler Archer, JD · 2026
Community solar arrays, neighborhood microgrids, and shared battery systems are spreading quickly, and they hold real promise for the households this series keeps returning to: renters, residents of multifamily buildings, and low-income families who cannot put panels on a roof they do not own. But underneath the optimism sits a question that determines whether the promise lasts. A community can host an energy asse…
Read primer →