Blacks in Green - BIG™ Blacks in Green [BIG] is national network born to close America's racial wealth gap via the new green economy - increasing Black household income and increasing community resilience against the harms of climate crisis. Our Sustainable Square Mile™ system implements our
8 Principles of Green-Village-Building™ introduced in 2007 to achieve BIG's theory of change: that only a whole-system solution can transform the whole-system problem common to Black communities everywhere; that ultimately selfsustaining Black communities everywhere would change the narrative of what it means to be Black in America; and that our communities would thereby become synonymous with beauty, prosperity, comfort, and joy.

BIG works to increase the rate at which neighbor-owned businesses are created and sustained; to build the capacity of neighbors to own, develop, and manage the property in their community; and to remember and reinvent the conservation lifestyle ~ where households and homesteads produce their own energy, grow their own food, clean their own water, and recycle their own waste. This reignites our Great Migration tradition of walk-to-work, walk-to-shop, walk-to-learn, walk-to-play villages where African Americans own the businesses, own the land, and live the conservation lifestyle~ the beautiful, do-for-self life!

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 the 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.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR APPROACH

BIG INITIATIVES

To ensure policies at all levels of government center equity, justice, and sustainability, we manage policy campaigns and participate in powerful coalitions.

HOUSE AS GARDEN

A self-sustaining and collaborative neighborhood in where resource efficiency is the key to personal empowerment.

By Michael Sorkin - Michael Sorkin Studio, New York City, NY, USA

Ideas: Inclusion, Economic & Social Empowerment

Rooted in a partnership with the non-profit organization Blacks in Green, House as Garden reimagines housing in a historically underserved Chicago neighborhood as a catalyst for environmental and social regeneration. Conceived as a core component of a broader vision for a “sustainable square mile,” the project creates not just homes but a living framework for shared prosperity, self-reliance, and community cohesion. With flexible housing units interwoven with gardens, gathering spaces, and resource-efficient systems, House as Garden blurs the boundaries between dwelling, landscape, and collective empowerment.

Project Summary

Collaborative urban renewal

The project emerges from a strategic collaboration between architects and the grassroots organization Blacks in Green, aiming to transform a disinvested urban area into a thriving, sustainable district. It supports the non-profit’s mission to build local wealth through energy, food, housing, and culture, while enabling residents to remain and thrive within their own neighborhoods.

Flexible housing and shared spaces

The residential complex comprises eight adaptable housing units complemented by internal and external shared areas. These include a guest room, recreational zones, and green spaces dedicated to on-site agriculture. The spatial configuration encourages communal living, promotes interaction, and fosters a resilient social fabric.

Simple engineered lumber construction promotes local participation, training, and systems evolution.

Sustainable construction and local capacity building

Timber construction is used throughout, with a focus on simple, easy-to-assemble components that allow for local participation and skill development. The construction process becomes an educational tool—offering training opportunities and reinforcing the project’s social mission.

Environmental performance

House as Garden is designed to be net-positive in energy, utilising both passive and active strategies to reduce demand and generate surplus power. Systems for rainwater collection, greywater reuse, and ecological treatment are integrated visibly into the architecture, engaging residents with the workings of sustainable living.

Toward a sustainable square mile

Beyond the individual homes, the project sets the tone for a wider regenerative transformation. By combining architecture, environmental stewardship, and grassroots community engagement, House as Garden offers a replicable model for neighbourhood-scale sustainability that is inclusive, empowering, and deeply rooted in place.

Jury Appraisal

The Holcim Awards jury North America considered the project to be an impressive gesture of “organic” regeneration that is energetically focused on designing a socially viable and autonomous environment to empower the community. The proposal suggests an innovative residential building typology that not only gravitates around the value of sharing as a means of human empowerment, but that is also environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing.

The jury particularly appreciated the great potential for flexibility and replicability of the project which promotes transferable sustainable practices under many aspects. The interesting and compelling way the architecture integrates “off the shelf” technologies (including solar PV panels, heat recovery ventilation, thermal glazing, greenhouses, etc.) was highly commended, especially in consideration of the affordability of the project. This proposal exemplifies how sustainable architecture can be designed to be both economical and beautiful – and can offer communities in need a new opportunity for their future.. 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.

CHICAGO ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE NETWORK

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.

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.