A multi-institution research effort reveals how new offshore wind projects affect nearby residents — exemplifying the promise of community-involved social science.
By Alison Gold
When a new clean energy project comes to town, people living nearby may have mixed feelings. Residents may be excited about the potential for new employment opportunities, community investments, and cheaper energy bills, but less thrilled about construction disruptions, noise, and other impacts.
A team of social scientists from Boston University, the University of Rhode Island, and the University of Delaware is working to understand, document, and amplify the experiences of two New England communities that have recently adopted offshore wind projects. Their findings are laying the foundation for a more equitable clean energy future in the region.
Rebecca Pearl-Martinez, executive director at Boston University’s Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS), said the research has been driven by several questions: “How do we procure offshore wind or any energy technology in ways that actually invest in the local community and respond to what residents asked for? And how do we better understand what those community needs are?”
The team is taking a two-pronged approach. First, researchers organized a series of workshops and focus groups in New Bedford, MA, and New London, CT, to gather information directly from residents.
These conversations complement the project’s second component: a literature review published in Energy Research & Social Science, led by Nellie Amosi, a postdoctoral associate at IGS, and guided by the Institute’s director, Benjamin Sovacool. The paper presents an organized “menu” of more than 2,000 ways that policymakers, non-governmental organizations, planners, and advocates can measure environmental justice.
The work is timely. In 2025, Science named renewable energy its Breakthrough of the Year, as it overtook coal for the first time globally. As clean energy projects are rapidly deployed around the world, community-partnered social science research can support a transition that promotes human health, economic opportunity, and community enrichment – and help earn the industry the widespread enthusiasm it needs to succeed.
Conversations with Community Members Reveal Equity Concerns
New Bedford, MA, and New London, CT, have a lot in common. They’re both New England port cities. Both have robust shipping infrastructure and rich maritime histories. Within the last decade or so, both have advanced the construction of offshore wind turbines. And most recently, they’ve both served as the setting for a regional research initiative.
To begin their work, the academic research team connected with partners from NAACP’s New London Branch and the Old Bedford Village Development Corp. The organizations, both of which were highly involved in port development in their cities, recruited residents to participate in workshops, interviews, and focus groups.
Buddy Andrade, an activist focused on equity in the offshore wind industry in New Bedford, MA, helped organize these meetings. Andrade said that as offshore wind projects have arrived in town over the years, many residents initially expressed excitement about the new opportunities.
“We want the jobs, we want the benefits, we want to be able to train,” Andrade said.
Interviews with residents revealed that many ultimately felt excluded from hiring and training opportunities. The researchers learned that many development companies bring their own workforces with them from out of state, a demographic shift that Andrade said can affect housing costs. These frustrations echoed through community meetings with locals.
“There was a lot of talk about economic development promises and workforce opportunities as the projects were proposed,” Pearl-Martinez said. “And there was a disappointment in not all of those opportunities coming to residents.”
There was a lot of talk about economic development promises and workforce opportunities as the projects were proposed. And there was a disappointment in not all of those opportunities coming to residents.
– Rebecca Pearl-Martinez
Some interviewees also reported that the arrival of the infrastructure itself was jarring. Many didn’t know what such large, unfamiliar structures were being used for. In the absence of open communication with the community, speculation and misinformation spread.
“There was a lack of understanding of what was happening in their own neighborhood,” Pearl-Martinez said.
She believes in the potential of clean energy infrastructure to revitalize communities if it’s done with their input and inclusion. Pearl-Martinez said the team’s findings could help New England state governments strengthen procedures to ensure community needs are prioritized in offshore wind projects.
A New Study Offers New Ways to Document Injustice
When measuring environmental justice, a public health researcher concerned about air pollution may focus on the distance certain populations live from hazardous waste sites. Meanwhile, an economist may compare utility bills in several neighborhoods.
In the study of environmental justice, distance from hazardous waste and utility bills are two examples of indicators, or observable measurements, used to quantify broader concepts.
The team’s new literature review, published in Energy Research & Social Science, categorizes 2,162 indicators used by academics to measure environmental, energy, and climate justice over the past 25 years. This is the first time these measurements have been counted and presented in one place.
“The aim was not to tell users there is one correct way to measure justice,” said Nellie Amosi, the postdoctoral associate at IGS and the paper’s first author. “Instead, we provided a structured inventory of options showing what metrics already exist, what they measure, and how they differ.”
The aim was not to tell users there is one correct way to measure justice. Instead, we provided a structured inventory of options showing what metrics already exist, what they measure, and how they differ.
– Nellie Amosi
Once she had collected all the indicators, Amosi organized them into a single table, which is displayed at the end of the new publication. Each indicator is categorized by whether it is simple or complex (drawing on just one or multiple variables), quantitative or qualitative (relying on numerical or observational data), and the type of impact it describes (for example, economic or health). The analysis also captures nuanced understandings of energy justice, such as who gets the benefits in relation to energy systems, who bears the burdens, and who gets to participate in decisions.
Amosi said the tool was designed to be used as a “menu” offering up indicators to suit various needs, or even inspire new research ideas.
“Researchers, for example, can use this menu to design stronger studies or compare different approaches across the literature,” Amosi said. “Policy makers or planners may select metrics or indicators that match their policy goals, data availability, and the scale of their decision-making. For communities, they can use this menu to translate their lived experiences into indicators that an institution recognizes.”
The assessment highlighted larger trends in how academia examines environmental injustice. The paper notes that economic impacts were far more prevalent in the literature than political and health impacts, potentially indicating a relative lack of data available on those subjects.
Amosi was also surprised to find that less than 15% of the indicators found could be classified as “complex.” Compared to simple indicators, complex indicators incorporate multiple metrics and often require interdisciplinary collaboration to create and interpret.
“If we are leaning more toward the use of just simple indicators, it means that we are not really looking at the integrated, multi-dimensional approaches that help us alleviate these injustices,” Amosi said. “The findings highlighted an important gap.”
A Team That Supports Each Other, and Its Neighbors
Through this collaboration, Andrade, the community leader in New Bedford, MA, said he has grown to understand and appreciate how academic researchers can help address inequities in his city. Andrade describes the partnership as rooted in “complete transparency, complete engagement.” David Bidwell, a professor at the University of Rhode Island, guided the community-centered approach.
“This was from the heart of these individuals wanting to do this work, wanting to make sure the community understood what they were doing,” Andrade said. “Not only is their work important, it’s intriguing. I learned a lot more about researching. I learned a lot more about how this stuff is done. And now I respect it a whole lot more.”
The experience has also been rewarding for Amosi. Before joining IGS as a postdoctoral associate, she was concluding her PhD in Environmental Sciences at the University of Connecticut.
Supporting this project has helped prepare Amosi for a career where she can apply her research skills to bridge communities, researchers, and policymakers at a time when nations are investing billions of dollars in energy and climate transitions. She hopes her work will help ensure these transitions are more equitable and inclusive.
“The partnership makes the research findings that much richer themselves,” Pearl-Martinez said. “But it also has this element of ownership by the community organizations that they were part of the production of the knowledge. We have a shared knowledge.”
