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Beyond the Power Grid: Buiding Detroit's Resilience Network with Briana DuBose · Building Better Cities

• Episode 52, Briana: Every city has places people already trust. A church, a food pantry, a community center. In Detroit, one of the most power outage-crone cities in the country, those places are becoming resilience hubs where neighbors can go when the lights go out. Today I'm joined by Brianna Dubose, Executive Director of EcoWorks, a Detroit nonprofit working at the intersection of energy and community since 1981. We talk about why trusted institutions are the right foundation for climate resilience, the workforce pathways these projects create. and what it takes to put community needs ahead of technology. This work delivers enormous value, but it's so nuanced and expansive that it often doesn't fit the boxes Capital is looking to check. I'm Kate Gasparo and this is Building Better Cities. So even though you and I have been working together for about a year, I was hoping you could unpack your journey to get to EcoWorks as the executive director. I want to better understand what is the driver and motivation for you doing this really impactful sustainability work in and around Metro Detroit. Sure. Well, I'm trained as an attorney and I always have had a social service lens. ironically, I worked in for the Circuit Court of Cook County in a administrative division working over the family law bureau. I led the Family Law Bureau. And in that capacity, again, social services, giving back, caring about families, caring about children. And I always say that unconditional love got me to Detroit. And so I moved from Chicago to Detroit when I got married and as a result, actually started doing some consulting with DTE Energy. And in working with DTE Energy I one of the areas we were dealing with the deregulation of the utility industry, electric choice. And so I was working with energy regulation and transmission lines. And part of that scope was actually understanding how their systems and processes work. And I was assigned to a particular focus group dealing with arrearages. It's like, wow, you know, why do people when you talk about arrearages, why are their utilities getting cut off? Why are they going into collections. And so I would go to these focus groups and you'd see this wide swath of people that were from community, oftentimes lower economic status, that couldn't afford to pay their utility bills. And they would put them, the utility company would put them in the programs or put them with other organizations to help them with paying their utilities, but they would it would be a short term fix. And then they would ultimately recycle and come back and go back into ridges. And oftentimes when people's utilities are cut off, it's more than just not having power. It can impact social services. It can pack you having your children. It can impact you getting signed up for other services that you need. And so it's just a cyclical downward spiral of just feeling hopeless and despair and just just seeing people go through a cycle of poverty. And so I learned about energy affordability by working as a consultant and then started doing some volunteer because I thought this is a problem and it's not fair and it's not right. And again, my social service side came out of how can I help in this. And fortunately, a position came open at EcoWorks and I welcomed the opportunity and became part of a just phenomenal organization that's been around for over forty something years. It's been around since nineteen eighty one. And Just it's giving me an opportunity to combine my passion of social service with giving back, but also learning a lot about energy affordability and energy burden and being able to find solutions to help try to resolve those for people that are often unseen and unheard. One of the first episodes we did for this podcast was about the energy burden in and around Detroit and other communities in the Midwest. I was wondering if you could put that into some scale for us. Right now you work a lot with energy affordability, with communities that are in and around Metro Detroit. What does that look like and who does this problem touch? What that looks like is that we work with the acronym is BIPOC, which is Black Indigenous People of Color. And we primarily work in Southeast Michigan, which in in frontline community, the most of those communities are people of color and people of lower sec economic status. People that are usually put in situations where they are in underserved communities, so resources, the tax base isn't there, so they have poor infrastructure. they are in heat islands, they don't have tree canopies, so their utility bills are usually higher because they're not shade and things like that that can help. Detroit housing stock is very, very old. Most of it is was built before nineteen sixties. And so you've got infrastructure with older homes that are beautiful, but they're they're crumbling. They're poor insulation, poor windows, foundation issues, flooding basements. A lot of these residents are in floodplains. And so you repeatedly see incidences of disproportionately of people being served with higher utility bills because their energy is leaving their home or their business because they aren't properly upgraded or insulated. They're in floodplains that repeatedly flood every time. There's even just a a storm, not we aren't talking about a tropical storm, just storms. that they're the flooding goes out, so then you have health issues because there's repeated black mold problems. there the grid infrastructure is not good. In Detroit, it's one of the highest power outages in the country. And so repeatedly when there are minor storms, snow storms, we live in a cold weather climate, or even just regular summer s spring storms, there'll be power outages. One of our communities often will get response from folks. It's like our power is out. We need help. and it just happens repeatedly where I'm now holding my breath sometimes when the power goes out because I know there's going be people that are in crisis and in need, and I want to make sure that we can respond. Mm-hmm. Could you speak a little bit about how EcoWorks interacts with frontline communities to ensure that when their power goes down, that there is some place for them to go? Or maybe just talk about the life cycle of work that EcoWorks embarks on to ensure that the energy burden can be mitigated in some respects for these households? Sure. So we're focused on place-based development, energy affordability, resilience, and sustainability. What I mean by place-based development is that we are now not just looking at one-off projects. We are looking at where we find areas that we can maximize impact so that we can bring communities along where they all are resilient, which means not just surviving but thriving. We're giving them resources so that when there are power outages or when there are extreme weather events that they have trusted neighborhood institutions that they can go to, what we're calling resilient hubs. And what a resilient hub means is a trusted place where they can go to get support, not only in emergencies, but also in in other times of need that they can go that's a that's someplace that they trust. And we primarily are working with social service agencies and houses of worship that are have phenomenal leaders that are stewards in sustainability and that are interested in being stewards of the earth. And so it makes a phenomenal partnership that we're able to work with these trusted community anchors to be able to build resilient hubs, which allows for places that community members can go when the power goes out. Oftentimes, when power goes out, people just think of just the short-term impacts. my food will go bad, the refrigerator's not on. But many of the communities and the people that we work with in those communities are senior citizens. Because they've lived in these areas for so many years and and they don't want to leave due to gentrification. we work with people that have families, small households, children that are impacted by asthma, because we work in communities that have poor air quality. A lot of communities are by the factories and the bridges and high truck traffic. so we're dealing with a lot of people that are dealing with public health impacts on climate. change and and the where they live. And so when the power goes out, they can't use their oxygen tanks. They can't s refrigerate some medicines that need to be refrigerated. They don't have the power to help with their mobile assisted walkers or wheelchairs or other medical equipment that needs power. And so the work that we're doing is not just giving people light. are giving people energy, we're giving them an an opportunity to have a peace of mind, resources and and help that they need. And oftentimes the community members do not have the resources of people that are in a different socioeconomic area or in an area where maybe the power goes out in a suburban location in in Detroit, but the impact is not the same because of resources. And so having Power is even more important for people that are often left behind and and don't have the resources or are affected by energy burden more than other communities in this area. So I would imagine that resilience hubs need to be local to where the problem is, but also need to be resilient enough so that they maintain power during these times of crisis. Could you speak to what the infrastructure is that supports the resilience have? What are the different elements from a technical perspective, but also maybe from an institutional perspective that need to be in place to really support households that are impacted by these storms and power outages throughout the community? Sure. So some of what needs to be in place is first and foremost a trusted community anchor. We don't want to manufacture a place where people will go. We want to make resilient hubs where people already feel that there's a trusted community anchor where they live. And oftentimes those are houses of worship or another community center that they feel that they can go to where people know them, where they know that other people that live in their community also will go so that there's a sense of community when they go to these resilient hubs. And so those are places that we seek out. We also look at ways to look at energy efficiency, electrification, solar and battery and also EV charging stations. With each resilient hub, there's a core set of elements with electrification and solar and battery that we put in as well as EV charging that were the core components of the model. But some will change. It's not a cookie cutter approach. They will have differences around energy efficiency. Some buildings may have different needs around their infrastructure or furnace or their HVAC system or their air quality. And so we do audits to make an assessment on what are the best needs for that building, where they're the most economical, what we can get on return on investments. Because if we can save energy, that means dollars. And that means to a house of worship that already is serving as a community institution, i.e. a food pantry or soup kitchen, or a social service agency that's helping like with literacy. if they can invest those dollars that they save on their energy costs, they can reinvest that back into their organization, which then serves even more people to help the need. Hmm. Let's get a little tangible with one of these hubs in particular. And I'll let you choose which one is r has really I would say step up and has been an exemplary in how they've acted as a resilience hub. so if you could talk through what does a crisis look like wha how many people are coming to a resilience hub during crisis and how are they getting there really? I'm curious, you talked a little bit about elderly people trying to get to resilience hub and also the institution itself probably having the network to be able to connect people who need the accessibility to the resilience hub itself. So could you walk us through what an entire crisis timeline looks like for resilience hub? Sure. There is one that is just slaw but mighty. And that's what I think is just really impressive. It's a organization called SDM2, and they are Project Literacy Education. And the phenomenal leader, Jacqueline Lawson, has become just a phenomenal partner of ours. And we started working with SDM two back when we had a community energy management grant from the state of Ish Michigan after COVID dealing with refrigerants. And we know that refrigerants take a lot of energy. And so we were able to to do some energy upgrades and from there learn more about this organization's passion and mission. And they are a food pantry and soup kitchen. And so came to one of their holiday fests and they make the community members feel like they are not in need, but that this is a service we're providing you. And they give them dignity and a presence when they're waiting in line to get food distribution. it just it really shows you the impact and the line was from the organization's front door literally down two blocks. And during this past winter when it was deathly cold and other flu pantries were closed, this particular phenomenal leader was so innovative that she put out a call of action. I think even put stuff out on social media and was able to find tour buses that were the people used to you know take people on field trips and things like that. that she could get for a nominal amount of money. And those buses sat in front of her food pantry and soup kitchen to allow people so they would not have to sit out in the cold and and have dignity and they could watch movies and she served them hot beverages. And when their ticket was up, they'd go in and and get their food and then they would leave and then the next portion would come. Oftentimes people are designated where there's food pantries and soup kitchens. So people are usually within the neighborhood boundaries where these organizations rely. But if they aren't, there are other social service agencies that we can reach out to that have Meals and Wills or other people that will take folks to be able to come to get to a a resilient hub. This one in particular, there also was a storm this summer that knocked out the power. And we were fortunate to be able to get solar power in. And so this particular hub, SDM2, still stayed open. A result of them staying open meant that other food pantries that did not have resilient solar and battery weren't able to stay open. So on average, this particular hub may serve 300 some odd people. They serve on every Tuesday and Thursday, and then they'll do some other outreach. But additionally, she was able to do a count that they served on that particular day an additional 150 some odd people. that were able to come that were coming from other pantries. And oftentimes they're usually people that they see on a regular basis. And so she started noticing, we aren't where are you guys coming from? And they said, hey, our food pantry is out. And so we we all carpooled or we got transportation to come to your food pantry. And so she was able to serve additional people. In addition, Target Corporation, major retailer, did not have power. And so they had 50,000 pounds of food that was going to go spoiled. And so because of the refrigerant systems that we put in and and and freezers that we put in and a coolant shed, SDM2 was able to take some of that food and be able to to save it to use the next day, not only for their food pantry, but also to give to other neighborhood service organizations that had closed or were in need of services across the city and donate that food that they were able to salvage that would have spoiled if it had not been for our resilient hub. Wow. Now Brianna, this is one of multiple resilient hubs that you work with. How many are there in the EcoWorks network as of now? We have twenty that have been identified. We have been able due to funding changes, been able to work actively with thirteen. and all thirteen will have storage and res a s solar storage and battery. And so they will be full-fledged resilient hubs. There's we ran out of money, so we unfortunately do not have the EV charging stations that we wanted to have, but we have identified where there are EV charging deserts. And that is our goal that we are looking at networking to treat still find to partner with other organizations so that we can have battery backup and ride share and mobility because the resilient hub is not just about the need inside that building, it's about helping the needs of the community. Externally. So as you asked, how do people get to resilient hubs? We know in the city of Detroit that public transportation is limited. not everyone can have a car. And so even one of our aspects was not just meeting the need around emergency, but also meeting the need around what that community needs. And that was one of the things that we did in in establishing these hubs, listening to what are the needs and mobility is a big one. So part of us creating resilient hubs is also creating EV charging stations, trying to incorporate bi-directional charging so we can have battery backup in addition, and that neighbors can come to charge their electronics to be able to get a ride sharing car to get to work, to get to school, to get to doctor's appointments. And so we're servicing a full ecosystem in the community. Okay. And in terms of the opportunities that you're seeing. with unlocking these resilient hubs and implementing this type of technology. I know that eco works is a lot in terms of job training. how do you see resilience hubs lending themselves towards a new growing class of people working in this industry? One thing that's really important is that we're trying to again build an ecosystem and we don't want climate investment being done in a community and the economic impacts being taken from the community. And so what's really important is that with these new technologies, what we have found is that there are so many tradespeople that don't know about heat pumps or about phase change materials or some of the newer technologies around electrification and decarbonization. And sometimes those tradespeople are are resistant because it's new or it's not being adopted as fast. And so We have had to be nimble in in finding a contractor pool that is versed and and wants to commit to working with the communities and wants to commit to working with a nonprofit that's learning how to scale this type of a program. The beauty of that is that by working with houses of worship and social service agencies is that they already have a invested commitment in the community. So again, trust. We want to be able to have facility managers that know how to work the solar panels, that know how to do the maintenance on the heat pumps, that knows how to work with stormwater infrastructure. So one of our site, St. Suzanne's, had a really phenomenal stormwater infrastructure training program that people were able to go through. And based upon them having this training training program and installing stormwater infrastructures and their parking lot. Savings for that resilient help, but also train people in viable jobs. We are working with our solar developer to be able to get people to learn about how to become a solar developer. At one of our sites, Lord of Lords, Pastor Glass is the senior pastor. And his son came through a program to learn about being a solar developer. And then through that, also is now working on his electrician license and certification. So These programs are really turning out to be pathways to provide people in the community opportunities to see tangibly how this works on someplace that they trust, learn about it, and then also we create pathways so that they can be trained and that we're using those people actually on our projects so that then they're getting apprenticeships, they're getting training, they're able to then maybe support that community or get other jobs and come back into the community. And then it helps not only the resilient hub, but it also helps the people that are living and using those hubs by getting training opportunities in the green economy that they otherwise might not. Mm-hmm. There seem to be so many benefits to resilience hubs from economic opportunities, which you just spoke to, to being crisis centers during times of outages across the community. It seems though that the biggest challenge is funding. And you talked a little bit about the changing landscape. at a national level as to where sustainability dollars have stopped short. And I'm curious, what does it take to move from these several individual sites to growing a network of resilience hubs to be foundational for the communities that you work in? One of those is that we're we're trying to be strategic and being forward thinking. like to think of life as half full versus half length empty when we're looking at barriers. And you know, this these past how many months now? Over nineteen, has been a whirlwind. and instead of always feeling like we have to be reactionary to what's being thrown at us in this nonprofit world or in this climate world in the green energy space, it's like, okay, people still have to eat, people still need the medicine, people still are in crises, people still need emergency preparedness when emergencies happen and how do you get to these resilient hubs? Just because there's not the money doesn't mean that people's interests change or people's needs change. And so what we're trying to do is to advance ways that we find scalable models and financing models to braid capital. It's like we I don't believe we're ever gonna have 100% grant reliant funding in the future. we've been fortunate. Well, the the community change was was transformational. I don't believe we'll see something like that for quite a bit of time. Just based upon the economic landscape that the country's in and and and the dollars are gone. But because of that, we'd like to say, okay, how do we get some seed capital? How do we then look at ways to be able to figure out how do we help institutions that may not have a strong balance sheet, to be able to find ways to provide low interest loans, find capital where it it's a new form of a purchase service agreement, but in a way that is more nuanced, is more to meet the needs. Oftentimes in communities of color, lending practices have been unfair. And so how do we educate people about financial matters, but also bring them to the table for them to discuss what are some of the barriers of getting loans? What type of financing structures will work for our house of worship to become a resilient hubs or a social service agency to become a resilient hub? And how do we get them to be trusted partners with a lending institution, a community development finance institution, a green bank institution. How do we also make sure that we have institutions like EcoWorks that can get sustainable that to help us continue to be implementers, developers with these projects and supports us from a capacity standpoint, but also helps be able to get a pipeline of projects financed and in in a reserve so that there is a cohort of projects So again, we aren't just doing small projects, we're doing multiple projects. And ultimately, we've actually done a study that, there's over 9,000 churches in the state of Michigan. a pro percentage of those are food pantries and soup kitchens. So while we're primarily concentrated right now in Southeast Michigan, we also are looking at other rural areas and other areas statewide to be able to scale this so that other communities can replicate what we're learning and what we're doing in Detroit. Offering, it's as such a clear boundary to it, but it also touches so many things beyond that boundary. And I'm curious as you're working with grant funders, as you're looking at innovative financing mechanisms, what is it that these funders, financiers don't quite understand about the practicality of the work that you are delivering? You're so on point. that it it's we have a need, and when we talk about energy affordability. Oftentimes people just want to put that in a box. It's like, okay, what are the technical needs to address energy affordability? Well, that's one measure, that's one component. But on the same time, you also have, how is that institution used? And it's used from various touch points. It's used to help people, it's used to educate people, it's used as an emergency site, it's used to help from a public health site. So we're dealing with education. healthcare, socioeconomic workforce development, and it's used as a safety net. And because it's a safety net, that's the foundational principle. And so we can't just always measure saying, we can promise that if we put in this technology, we're gonna be able to see a return on investment in this finite period of time. Some of it may be layered with some different nuances. It's like we can get quick returns of investment. If we just look at the technical, it's like, okay, if we do some of these energy efficiency measures or this electrification, we know tankless water heaters usually get a quick return of investment with those. But something such as a water heater, if we don't put the solar and the battery width, the electric bill may still be high. So we need people to understand we need the investment of both, which may cost more money. But long term will help with the energy burden for that site. And so how do we possibly sometimes put together a model where it's not always going to be about the return on investment? Can we add some things that are important and needed in that institution because they're it's an outdated old infrastructure issue, or they're in a floodplain, or they're in a heat island, or they're in an area where the power grid is terrible and it's not their fault. They've been put there based upon systems and years of of being put in those systems. so they're at a disadvantage. So how do we help them get out of that disadvantage situation? And it's a multiplier. and if we're able to look at it from a funder saying, Yes, you're investing in us to to give us money to do energy upgrades, electrification, resilience upgrades, but we also need money around education. We also need money around workforce development programs. We also need money around apprenticeship programs so people can actually get the hours to get the jobs. We also need money on transportation needs, working with larger state organizations to be able to get charging infrastructure set up in these communities so people are not at a disadvantage. And those are a lot of the things that have to be considered when you're talking about a resilient hub project. versus just only the technology. It's it's what do people need. And oftentimes the people can tell you what they need faster than us just coming in putting in a technology and not really addressing the holistic need of the community. We want the technology to work for the people and so the people need to come first. That approach and sort of the understanding of where community needs are I feel like is so fundamental to the success of EcoWorks. And I have had the pleasure of working with you for the last year, but I've known of EcoWorks for the last five years. And just the consistency and the rapport that you have with the community comes from that community first approach. And so as you think about what other communities who are in need of resilience hubs might turn to EcoWorks and say, hey, how do we get this right? For the first second steps of that roadmap to help them build the resilience hubs and more than that, the trust that EcoWorks has built with their institutional partners and the communities they work with in. It takes time. It's not gonna be we come in and we just flip on a light. this community has to be centered. And so some of that is going in and listening to what the needs are. When someone goes through a power outage, what what is their life like? I can tell you possibly what may I may feel when a power outage goes out, but what does that person's life, what happens when their power goes out? How long does the power go out for? Assessing how that feels, what the impacts are, just just really making sure that we understand why there is an urgent need for us to figure out this problem to provide a resource where people can go to and understanding what that need is versus again making assumptions that. may or may not be the priorities for that community. So first addressing what the priorities for that community, where what institution do they trust? We've selected and have been successful working with houses of worship. But there may be other institutions, maybe the school district, maybe a school, it may be the daycare facility, it may be a the business network in that community. People come to the corner store because that person employs people in the community. So people say, well, no, we want that store to be resilient first because they employ us, they have supplies, that we feel safe there. that this person has invested a lot into our community. So again, what are the priorities of that community? And then looking at ways in which The resources that can be contributed, the leaders that are working in those systems have been so important. So we, as I said, have worked with phenomenal sustainability leaders that happen to be pastors. And they have some of them do something else in addition to being stewards of their flock, but at the same time, they're they're they're leaders of faith. And with that faith, they put their faith into action and saying that we want to be stewards of the earth. And so we want to invest in understanding about how climate change impacts our community. We want to learn about advocacy of how we can help create legislation and policy where the air is clean, where we take out incinerators out of our communities. And so those things now need to be considered because you've got to be able to make sure you have the partnerships with people that are gonna help sustain the work. Because none of this happens overnight. And so while we're doing the work, implementing the work, we need trusted community partners that are willing to say, we want to stand for this work. We want to be an example of how this work can be implemented and what it will represent. And so we're willing to to to walk in faith with you to to try out some of these technologies that we may not be necessarily aware of but let's learn together and and and and trust that how we communicate and then how they communicate with their communities, the people that live in their communities on what we're doing, why we're doing, why we're making these investments. And those those are the starting points that that I would start. And so we don't have a cap on resilient hubs. We just know that there is a sector of hubs that have a need based upon food insecurity and that how do we fit into the broader scheme of working with the city of Detroit and other phenomenal nonprofit organizations and building up a resilient hub network where there's there's enough need that unfortunately we won't be able to answer this in the next five years. But if we start working together and building together as a coalition, we can certainly change the trajectory of some of the communities that have just been disproportionately harmed by a lot of environmental practices and and legislation that harm their communities. Resilience hubs work because they start with trust. It's how communities that have long been disinvested in can begin to rebuild with new resources and support, especially in times of emergency. And for the investors and funders listening, the impact here is real, even if it doesn't always pencil out neatly. You can find EcoWorks and more on Resilience Hubs in the show notes. If this conversation was valuable to you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone working to make their own community more resilient. Until next time, let's keep building better cities together.