Blacks in Green - BIG™ is a national network for environmental justice and economic development created to close America’s racial health/wealth gap via the new green economy using a whole-system solution for the whole-system problem common to Black communities everywhere.
Founder, Naomi Davis
Blacks in Green™ has pioneered environmental economic development for the benefit of Black America since 2007— a 501c3 non-profit tackling pollution and poverty with a goal of closing America’s racial health/wealth gap via the new green economy and transforming Black communities into oases of resilience against climate crisis. We’re building economies in energy, horticulture, housing, tourism, and waste via our Sustainable Square Mile™ system.
A vision of the Sustainable Square Mile
Our Sustainable Square Mile System™ implements the 8 Principles of Green-Village-Building™ to cultivate walk-to-work, walk-to-shop, walk-to-learn, walk-to-play villages where African American neighbors own the businesses, own the land, and live the conservation lifestyle. By building economies in energy, horticulture, housing, tourism, and waste in a walkable-village, BIG works to increase household income and resilience against the harms of climate crisis for practitioners in their pilot village of West Woodlawn, Chicago and beyond.
BIG INITIATIVES
To ensure policies at all levels of government center equity, justice, and sustainability, we manage policy campaigns and participate in powerful coalitions.
BIG JUSTICE TCTAC
We have been selected by the US EPA to serve as one of 17 Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers (EJ TCTAC). The $10M grant will establish technical assistance centers across EPA’s Region 5 territory, which includes 35 tribal lands, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. The centers will provide technical assistance, training, and related support to communities and their partners with environmental justice concerns. Learn more here.
CLIMATE & EQUITABLE JOBS ACT
With fellow members of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, we succeeded in passing one of the most equitable climate jobs bills in the nation: the Climate & Equitable Jobs Act.
FOUNDING MEMBER
We are a founding member of the Chicago Environmental Justice Network, which successfully led campaigns to close the city’s coal-fired power plants and prevent the planned construction of General Iron’s metal shredding facility on the South Side of Chicago. CEJN is also at the forefront of cumulative impact policy reform.
BLACK ENERGY JUSTICE
Our Campaign to End Energy Poverty shines a spotlight on the Illinois Commerce Commission, a little-known agency that has a big impact on the affordability of life-essential services including electricity and heat.
CLIMATE ACTION PLAN
We are a contributing partner in developing Chicago’s Climate Action Plan.
CITY-WIDE MASTER PLAN
As a We Will community partner, we are helping to develop Chicago’s first city-wide master plan in seventy years.
COALITION OF BLACK HOUSE MUSEUMS
We are a founding member of the Coalition of Black House Museums, which is focused on protecting important sites such as the Emmett Till-Mobley House Museum; the Muddy Waters Original Jam Out Museum (MOJO); the Phyllis Wheatley House; The Elijah Muhammad House, aka Sajdah House; and the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum.
BLACK CHICAGO WATER COUNCIL
We manage the Black Chicago Water Council, a program that aims to ensure all Black Chicagoans have reliable access to clean, safe, and affordable water.
MEET THE BIG TEAM
NAOMI DAVIS
FOUNDER & CEO
Naomi is dedicated to self-sustaining Black communities everywhere. Her strategy begins with her aim to reinvent her childhood “sustainable-square-mile” here in the Age of Climate Crisis. She is the founder/CEO of Blacks in Green (BIG™), an urban theorist, attorney, activist, and proud granddaughter of Mississippi sharecroppers.
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Her heritage forms the foundation for BIG's course in Grannynomics™, The 8 Principles of Green-Village-Building™ and The Sustainable Square Mile™ which Naomi authored and teaches nationally in community lectures and workshops and at universities.
Naomi serves as a bridge and catalyst among communities and their stakeholders in the design and development of green, self-sustaining, mixed-income, walkable-villages within black neighborhoods – so that every household can ultimately walk-to-work, walk-to-shop, walk-to-learn, walk-to-play – and neighbor dollars can circulate locally to help limit greenhouse gasses associated with transportation and manufacturing pollution.
She conveys the risks of global warming; the health/wealth opportunities of the new green economy; the power of neighbors to lead in their city’s enviro-economic policy and practice; and the primacy of land ownership.
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Orlando McGee
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
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Nuri Madina
SUSTAINABLE SQUARE MILE DIRECTOR
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Gwen Pruitt
BIG BOTANIC GARDENS & FARMS DIRECTOR
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Veronica Rivers
ACCOUNTING MANAGER
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David Yocca
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE DIRECTOR
Connect with more of our team on Linkedin:
BIG CAREERS
JOB OPPORTUNITIES
We have officially launched our $10M EPA Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center (TCTAC) program. Stay tuned for our announcement of new BIG hires & job opportunities.
Extraordinary professionals with love of community, passion for system change, and affinity for environmental justice are invited to inquire directly to candidates@blacksingreen.org.