Dr. Therese Peffer, Christine Thomson, and Susi Marzuola from the Oakland EcoBlock team recently met with Dan Hellmuth, the President and Director of Design for the Urban EcoBlock, a multidisciplinary volunteer board focusing on sustainable urban development in the American Midwest.
The teams compared notes on their respective initiatives: While the Oakland EcoBlock is retrofitting a fully occupied residential urban block with efficiency and electrification improvements, the Urban EcoBlock focuses on revitalizing largely vacant blocks in depressed urban areas. Both EcoBlocks share a social impact mission, leverage unique legal frameworks, and primarily rely on grant funding to advance their efforts.
Collaboration between the EcoBlocks is ongoing, with future opportunities for partnerships and information sharing.