DuBose
Strategic Community Initiatives, Program Director
P. (313) 894-1030
About Strategic Community Initiatives
Briana
Strategic Community Initiatives (SCI) develops custom-fit climate and energy solutions for
municipalities, school districts, health systems, small businesses and non-profit organizations. SCI has secured over $5 million in clean energy investments and $30 million lifetime savings for over 30 Michigan municipalities.
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SCI Energy Manager Brittany Turner (left) joins staff from the City of River Rouge, a longtime SCI partner, in accepting their Michigan Green Communities award.
Our Capabilities
Our team of Energy Managers have extensive experience partnering with public sector institutions and deep understanding of political and financial constraints and the mission to serve the public good. As a trusted non-profit partner, we bring a unique blend of people and change management skills coupled with technical assessment and project management capabilities:
Technical:
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Project analyses and scoping for energy efficiency, renewables, storage, microgrids
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Utility benchmarking
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Utility rates and incentives optimization
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Greenhouse gas inventories
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Comprehensive energy and climate plans
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Facility energy and water assessments
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Clean energy financing, including revolving loan funds
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Organizational policies and continuous improvement
Project Management:
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Owner’s representation and impartial contract review
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Start-to-finish oversight
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Stakeholder coordination
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RFP development & bid specifications
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Financing strategies and recommendations
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QA/QC and project evaluation
Engagement:
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Integration into master plans, capital improvement plans, and procurement policies
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Ambitious climate and energy goal-setting
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Meeting facilitation for leadership and constituents
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Professional development and training
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Inclusive, engaging community outreach
Benefits
Municipalities and public institutions have a mission to serve their communities, steward financial resources, and model climate leadership. By partnering with the SCI team, these institutions can:
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Reduce or eliminate large variable costs
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Free up capital to reinvest in future projects
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Improve resilience to extreme weather and climate impacts
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Engage constituents in fostering healthy, vibrant, inclusive environments
Robust community energy management makes organizations more nimble and resilient as energy costs and climate impacts rise.
Our community soil scientist takes a sample from EcoWorks headquarters, part of a study to devise a transformative, low-cost remediation technique to make lead in soils inert and safe for families.
Services:
Public organizations can benefit from added technical expertise and staff capacity to develop energy plans and implement energy projects.
EcoWorks’ energy managers are available to work with clients to:
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Understand their energy needs and concerns
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Establish energy savings goals
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Benchmark energy consumption
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Develop and manage holistic energy and climate action plans
Energy managers have flexible skill sets and can be brought on for any scope of work, starting small if needed. They are responsible for all administrative, technical, and supervisory tasks related to each client’s energy policies and projects.
For organizations and municipalities that do not warrant a full-time or in-house energy manager, SCI can arrange for an energy manager to be shared between your team and a partner to facilitate economies of scale. Learning and working collaboratively, shared energy management creates opportunities for climate leadership, regardless of the size of your municipality or organization.
Our Work in Action
Creating an Engagement Strategy:
Community organizations and public sector institutions are responsible to the people they serve. We believe that inclusive engagement is foundational to just and equitable energy and climate planning.
In Detroit, EcoWorks was a lead partner in developing the City’s first Sustainability Action Agenda. We recruited and managed a team of 14 sustainability ambassadors, who attended over 100 community meetings and town halls, collected 1,200 surveys, and ensured that robust, inclusive engagement reached over 6,800 Detroiters in 8 months.
Setting Bold Energy, Climate and Sustainability Goals:
A shared vision opens the pathway for sustained action and focuses partners toward a common goal. When challenges arise, commitments to net zero emissions or 100% clean energy can provide the urgency and rationale to keep pressing forward.
438 U.S. mayors, including 20 in MI and several EcoWorks clients, are committed to uphold the Paris Climate Agreement. In the City of Ferndale, a signatory, SCI developed a municipally focused revolving energy fund which leverages the financial savings from energy efficiency upgrades to reinvest in future clean energy projects.
SCI also provided a framework for fund management, project selection, and potential sources of seed funding. A centerpiece of the framework was an LED streetlighting evaluation, which will generate annual savings of 800,000 kWh, 1.1 million lbs of CO2, and $150,000.
Bringing Projects to Life:
The best engagement, visioning, and planning is only successful when it culminates in action. We collaborate with every client to ensure they have access to the financing and expertise to execute.
SCI worked with the City of Pleasant Ridge to create a Community Energy Strategic Plan, which included extensive community input and comprehensive financing options. SCI oversaw the development of a 20 kW solar PV array installation on the community center, which is estimated to save $82,500 and generate 754 MWh over the next 25 years.
Eco-D provides residents and community organizations with resources to achieve healthy, affordable, resilient, and energy secure homes and neighborhoods.
Youth Energy Squad grows the next generation of young and diverse green leaders through hands-on, place- based projects that make homes, schools and communities more sustainable for everyone.
