| Resource Type | Article |
| Author / Source | Zach Clayton, Erifili Draklellis, Hadia Sheerazi, Jeremy Richardson (RMI) |
| Publication Date | October 2024 |
| Location | United States |
| Initiative Type | Program, Policy, Partnership |
| Project Complexity | Intermediate |
| Recommended For | Board, Staff, Community Organizations |
Estimated reading time: 15 minutes
Why This Matters for Rural Electric Co-ops
This article offers 16 ready-made metrics for tracking whether a project's promised community benefits actually happen. It covers engagement, hiring, energy burden, resilience, and local investment, with a data collection method for each. That gives a co-op a starting menu instead of building a tracking system from scratch.
The article was written for federal Community Benefits Plan requirements that have since been rolled back, so co-ops should not treat it as current application guidance. It may still help co-ops that already have approved federal awards with benefit commitments. More broadly, a co-op can adapt a handful of these metrics to report project outcomes to members, which builds trust and lowers the risk of local opposition.
Key Takeaways
| › | Metrics are the first step toward accountability. Without them, communities struggle to confirm a developer kept its promises. |
| › | Goals can be absolute (workers hired locally) or relative (fewer shutoffs over time), and both should be set with community partners. |
| › | Tracking where benefits land, down to zip code or census tract, shows whether priority members are actually reached. |
| › | Public reporting creates reputational pressure to perform, even without financial incentives, and strengthens regulator and member trust. |
Implementation Considerations
- Member Buy-In: Metrics should be defined with community input to reflect local needs. Some items, like compensating advisory board members or tracking Tribal agreements, will only apply in certain service territories.
- Staffing or Technology Requirements: Baseline surveys, ongoing data collection, and annual reporting take real staff time. Smaller co-ops should pick a few metrics that fit their project and may need partners such as local governments, nonprofits, or schools to collect data.
- Time-Sensitive Information: The article relies on Justice40 and DOE Community Benefits Plan requirements. Following a 2025 executive order, DOE suspended initiatives requiring or enforcing Community Benefits Plans and Justice40 requirements, and revised Loan Programs Office guidance eliminated the requirement that Title 17 applicants submit a Community Benefits Plan. Federal funding tied to these plans (including IRA programs) is not available to co-ops without an approved award, and new applicants should not rely on this pathway.
Notable Examples
- RMI: Source of the metrics, drawn partly from its Community Benefits Catalog of real utility and developer benefit examples.
Estimated reading time: 15 minutes
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