BIG NFP

House as Garden Affordable Regenerative Housing Prototype:
BIG has developed an award winning concept for a new model of affordable, net-positive owner-occupied housing (called House as Garden) that can be deployed on vacant/underutilized properties in West Woodlawn and has acquired a site for an initial prototype. BIG intends to refine the design, secure financing, and construct this prototype, and simultaneously develop the capacity to scale up production of iterations of these homes for Black individuals and families as a critical pathway to provide new, attainable, high-performance housing that offers healthy living and economic freedom using vacant properties that the City intends for redevelopment as affordable housing in West Woodlawn.

BIG owns and is restoring the recently designated landmark historic boyhood home of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley (including the nearby Mamie Till Forgiveness Garden site) in a way that exemplifies best practices in green redevelopment in the City of Chicago as a critical demonstration pilot project concurrent with the development of the overall neighborhood plan. Now is the moment in time when we have the opportunity to amplify the tragic history of Emmett Till and the West Woodlawn neighborhood to begin a new chapter of hope, healing, and regeneration through this green transformation. This will also serve as a prototype for the restoration of the existing older homes and buildings in West Woodlawn, and for the development of local business and service enterprises that will be needed to effectively construct, operate, and maintain sustainable systems in support of existing home and business owners. When completed the site will be a heritage destination and community anchor.

The Black Energy Justice™ program collaboration aims to advance procedural justice and equitable access to affordable clean energy in Illinois. Our strategy prioritizes organized engagement of grassroots communities we call “priority communities,” building awareness of their self-interests, cultivating their willingness to track energy impacts, and increasing their ability to lead in the Climate & Equitable Jobs Act [CEJA] implementation on behalf of their communities, including filing comments, writing letters, visiting decision-makers, and providing testimony in Illinois Commerce Commission proceedings.

Since 2010 BIG has been advancing a Sustainable Square Mile Pilot in its home community of West Woodlawn. This process involves implementing The 8 Principle of Green-Village-Building in activities across all 8 Principles, at scale, within the walkable-village, sustained over time, co-managed by neighbors, and implemented in stages and phases as resources become available.

Only a whole-system solution can transform the whole-system problem common to Black communities everywhere.
1. WEALTH | MICROSAVING/ LENDING LOCAL CURRENCY/WEALTH
Each village has its own measures, exchanges and repositories of wealth.
2. ENERGY | LOCAL ENERGY PRODUCTION AND TRANSPORTATION
Each village produces its own energy for heat, light and transportation.
3. PRODUCTS | SHOPPING AND WASTE
Each village supplies basic goods and services to neighbors, recycling and converting waste.
4. HOMESTEAD | AFFORDABLE GREEN HOMES AND GARDENS
Each village is sustained through jobs-driven development without displacement, providing mod-income housing and producing high-quality food through land trust community development corporations (CDCs).

5. CULTURE | NEWS AND NETWORKS STORIES AND STRUCTURES
Each village celebrates its past, present, and potential future culture through stories in print, digital and theatrical forms.
6. ORGANIZED | VILLAGE CENTERS AND BORDERS
Each village is a walkable, self-sustaining whole with perceptible borders, interdependent local ties, global context, organized and in action for self-interest.
7. EDUCATION | YOUTH AND ADULT
Each village fosters life-long learning through hubs, which are epicenters for green training, development and lifestyle transformation.
8. OASIS/COMMERCE | GREEN JOBS AND ENTERPRISE
Each village circulates its wealth through neighbor-owned businesses which invent, invest, manufacture and merchandise locally.

Black Chicago Water Council: Purpose: Helping neighbors to help neighbors relieve utility cost burden. Empowering neighbors organized to help neighbors with the burden of the utility costs. Utility-focused but water centric. It operates in eight justice action groups: Water Is a Human Right; Safety and lead service line replacement; One stop utility shut on shop; boating, swimming and fishing; habitats and ecology; careers and enterprise; urban agriculture; service line replacement; shoreline erosion and basement flooding.

Botanic Garden Council: Purpose: Attract, educate and mobilize neighbors to produce gardens of all kinds in their walkable village.

BIG Decarbonization project: A 10-year project to replace gas, space heat, water heat and cooking with electrical interfaces and infrastructure.

BIG Clean Power LLC* - Black contractor-owned cooperative offering full-spectrum energy services to Black communities including solar, sales (solar installations, panels, weatherization and pre-weatherization, energy efficiency installations, deep energy retrofits), and PVC panel assembly and EV charging installations.

Illinois Solar For All Grassroots Education Campaign, providing outreach in Environmental Justice communities for access to solar and the clean energy economy.

BIG Green Power Alliance* (A trade association. Bringing the clean energy economy to the Black community. Participants include leadership, trade contractors, solar professionals, educators, community-based orgs and activists. Introduce people to heat pumps - decarbonizing the built environment.

Green Economy Academy, accessible public courses on all things "green."

Celebrating our heritage and culture, we are telling our history and story across various mediums including:
Great Migration Tours:
Community Performance for Economic Development
Migration The Musical
The Suitcase
Seasonal Bird Walks
Seasonal Tree Walks
Numerous Community Engagements and Celebrations