Emerald Cities Collaborative (ECC) is a national

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

based in Washington, D.C. with affiliate offices in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, San Francisco and Seattle. Founded in 2009, Emerald Cities has the stated goal of creating "high-road" local economies that are sustainable, just and inclusive. The collaborative comprises more than 21 national organizations and focuses on

retrofitting Retrofitting is the addition of new technology or features to older systems. Retrofits can happen for a number of reasons, for example with big capital expenditures like naval vessels, military equipment or manufacturing plants, businesses or go ...

urban building stock, developing infrastructure, and promoting diverse local economies built around energy efficiency.

Services

Emerald Cities runs a number of programs oriented towards sustainability and

energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to: * Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process ** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed ** Mechanical efficiency, a ra ...

, including the RENEW Multi-family Program, the Community College Initiative, and an online training program for small and minority contractors on energy efficiency and renewable energy retrofitting. The organization also engages in

workforce development Workforce development, an American approach to economic development, attempts to enhance a region's economic stability and prosperity by focusing on people rather than businesses. It essentially develops a human-resources strategy. Work-force dev ...

, providing labor-community partnerships, training programs, and career pipelines to pair qualified individuals with

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

jobs. These programs include the Architecture, Construction and Engineering Students (ACES) Pathway Program and Skills Build us, a construction apprenticeship assistance program and a contractor academy for minority businesses in Boston. Additionally, Emerald Cities advocates locally and nationally for policy supporting efficient infrastructure and contracting that includes minority-owned businesses.

Chapters

The Emerald Cities Collaborative has chapters in the following cities: *

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

* Oakland *

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Board

* Bronze Investments *

Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU) is a labor federation of 14 North American unions in the building trade, founded by the American Federation of Labor in 1907. History North America's Building Trades Unions was founded by the American ...

* On Wisconsin Strategy * Community Action Partnership * The Corps Network * Council of Large Public Housing Authorities *

Enterprise Community Partners Enterprise Community Partners, formerly The Enterprise Foundation, is a national nonprofit organized around three central goals: to increase housing supply, advance racial equity and build resilience and upward mobility. Founded in 1982 by develo ...

* Green For All *

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is a trade union, labor union that represents approximately 775,000 workers and retirees in the electricity, electrical industry in the United States, Canada, Guam, Panama, Puerto Rico, a ...

International Union of Painters and Allied Trades The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) is a union representing about 100,000 painters, glaziers, wall coverers, flooring installers, convention and trade show decorators, glassworkers, sign and display workers, asbestos wor ...

* Laborer International Union of North America * The Local Initiatives Support Corporation * MIT Community Innovators Lab *

NeighborWorks America The Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, doing business as NeighborWorks America, is a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization that supports community development in the United States and Puerto Rico. The organization provides grant ...

* Partnership For Working Families *

PolicyLink PolicyLink is a national research and action institute dedicated to advancing economic and social equity. It focuses on policies affecting low-income communities and communities of color. It is a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, California, ...

United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters
*

YouthBuild USA YouthBuild is a non-profit organization which on a voluntary basis provides education, counseling and job skills to unemployed young American adults (between ages 16 and 24), generally high school dropouts. There are 273 YouthBuild programs in ...

Affiliates

Donors

Donors to the Emerald Cities Collaborative include: * Annie E. Casey Foundation * Atlantic Philanthropies * Nathan Cummings Foundation * The Joyce Foundation * The Kendeda Fund *

The Kresge Foundation The Kresge Foundation is a philanthropic private foundation headquartered in Troy, Michigan, United States. The foundation works to expand opportunities in America's cities through grantmaking and investing in arts and culture, education, envir ...

* Living Cities *

The Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

* Surdna Foundation

Partner organizations

* AFL-CIO Center for Green Jobs * Building Futures * C-Change Investments * California Construction Academy *

Change to Win Federation The Strategic Organizing Center (SOC), formerly known as the Change to Win Federation (CtW) is a coalition of North American labor unions originally formed in 2005 as an alternative to the AFL–CIO. The coalition is associated with strong advoca ...

* Civic Ventures * DC Project * Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice * KGS Buildings, LLC *

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...

* Pantheon Properties * PA State Representative John Siptroth *

United Steelworkers The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, commonly known as the United Steelworkers (USW), is a general trade union with members across North America. Headquar ...

US Green Building Council The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), co-founded by Mike Italiano, David Gottfried and Rick Fedrizzi in 1993, is a private 501(c)3, membership-based non-profit organization that promotes sustainability in building design, construction, and op ...

* Wider Opportunities for Women

References

{{Reflist
Emerald Cities Seattle Demonstrating Sustainable Affordable Housing Through Energy Efficiency , KPLU News for Seattle and the Northwest

* cleveland.com
More Than a Drafting Error: Why Scott Walker Is Wrong
Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C. Democracy activists