Celebrating the Innovation Fund 2024 Awardees

Build It Green believes that the roots of transformation begin with people, their communities and relationships. This is why a core branch of our work lies in the California Housing System Innovators Network. It is an initiative that brings together changemakers across industries, disciplines, and the state of California to break down silos and create a more equitable and regenerative housing system. The Network cultivates spaces to deepen relationships, grow collaboration capacities, and process together emergent opportunities. With that, fresh innovative ideas can begin to blossom. This year, we doubled down on our commitment to supporting those ideas that have sprouted from our Innovators Network advance into concrete action.

Launch and Purpose of the 2024 Innovation Fund

In April 2024, Build It Green launched the Network’s Innovation Fund, marking a major milestone for our work and making available a total of $200,000 in grants for transformative Network-led projects this year. The Innovation Fund was established to provide the fuel to ignite the engines of initiatives poised to make a significant impact within their place-based contexts, while offering lessons that can potentially be scaled across the greater housing landscape. It provides seed funding—grants that range between $5,000 to $50,000—to projects that demonstrate potential in three pillars:

With just this first round, the Innovation Fund has garnered a significant amount of demand and enthusiasm from our Network. We received a total of 12 proposals requesting over $400,000. The proposals were not only diverse in their ideas but also in their teams of collaborators, geographic scope, and scale. Each proposal underwent thorough review by our Innovation Fund Design Committee in a participatory grantmaking process that was completed in late June 2024, resulting in the selection of eight projects.

Celebrating the 2024 Innovation Fund Awardees

We are thrilled to announce the awardees of the 2024 Innovation Fund. These remarkable projects, selected for their potential to reshape California’s housing landscape, embody the spirit of innovation and regeneration.

102 Acres Community Development: Centering Advocacy & Empowerment, located in South Sacramento’s Meadowview area, aims to bring community priorities to the transformation of 102 acres into a mixed-use community. It prioritizes community needs, including affordable housing, green spaces, and commercial facilities, and expanding the community’s capacity for self-advocacy. Support for the community leaders in the 102 Acres Advisory Committee is provided by Salazar Architects, Everyday Impact Consulting, and the City of Sacramento.

The California Sustainable Cities Green Bond Summit educates municipal leaders on using social impact bonds for climate and housing challenges. It aims to show how financing can be used for more positive sustainable social impact and community benefits. Led by Revalue.io with government, academic, and finance partners, the project promotes community transformation metrics, climate resilience, and ecological housing strategies for long-term positive impact.

The Cooperative Housing Blueprint (CHB) project in East San Jose aims to guide the establishment of housing cooperatives. Led by SOMOS Mayfair with PLACE Initiative, it addresses inequities faced by marginalized communities, particularly low-income Latinx families. The CHB will offer best practices, legal frameworks, and financial strategies for equitable homeownership and community empowerment, serving as a model for other communities. This grassroots, community-led initiative integrates regenerative practices and focuses on equity, empowering residents to shape their housing futures.

Mix & Match: A Toolkit for Housing Solutions is a transformative board game designed to empower community members—especially those historically underrepresented—to lead in designing housing models tailored to their specific needs. Created by design firms LMNOP and All of the Above, Mix & Match was initially developed in response to the housing crisis exacerbated by the 2021 Dixie Fire in Plumas County. The game fosters dialogue and collaboration among players, helping them explore innovative, community-specific solutions, thereby reshaping conversations around housing and development systems.

Reparative Housing Equity for Historically Redlined Berkeley project in South and West Berkeley, CA, leverages transit-oriented development around BART stations along Adeline Corridor to address historical inequities and promote reparative justice. Led by Healthy Black Families and Relequity Enterprises, the project will convene two advisory committees to advise on this development, building on partnerships with many community leaders and housing professionals.. The project focuses on creating 100% affordable housing, establishing a reparative fund, promoting low-income and collective homeownership models, integrating community engagement and preserving cultural integrity.

The Roadmap: Centering Community for Equitable Building Decarbonization, based in Los Angeles, tackles green gentrification with a community-centered approach. Co-created with local residents, it will produce a publication with engagement practices and policy recommendations for low-income communities of color impacted by climate change. Led Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) as a part of the the Los Angeles for Resilient and Healthy Homes (LARHH) coalition, the project will combine diverse expertise to address systemic inequities, enhance community resilience, and promote deep democratic involvement in decarbonization efforts.

The Sacramento Small Developer Boot Camp Incubator seeks to re-build and diversify the ecosystem of small developers and contractors necessary to deliver smaller-scale housing products to address the housing shortage in California. Through resources, mentorship, and training, the program prepares emerging developers to become the builders of tomorrow’s equitable developments and regenerative micro-communities. This Sacramento-based program was organized by PLACE Initiative, Incremental Development Alliance (IncDev), and the City of Sacramento, and builds on City changes to zoning laws and investment in deep community engagement.

Terner Builders Lab offers training, resources, and support to foster innovation in the housing sector. Launched by Terner Labs and its advisors, the project scales industrialized construction innovations to address the housing crisis, driving industry-wide transformation and addressing systemic inequities for sustainable housing delivery across the country.

These innovative projects highlight the immense potential for regenerative solutions in the housing sector and exemplify the collaborative spirit of the California Housing System Innovators Network. We eagerly anticipate the positive impact these initiatives will have on communities across California. Stay tuned for more from this work. Together, we are building a brighter, more equitable future.

Acknowledgements

Lastly, the design, outreach, and selection process of the Innovation Fund was a deeply involved and collaborative effort of the Innovation Fund Design Committee. We want to acknowledge and thank them for their thoughtful and committed input:

Abhijeet Pande, TRC
Dena Belzer, Strategic Economics
Kim Anderson, San Joaquin Council of Governments
Monet Boyd, City of Antioch

Peter Cohen, Housing Policy Consultant
robyn eason, self-employed
Sam Ruben, Mighty Buildings
Vaidehi Seth, Disruptive Creations

About Build It Green

Most Californians would agree that there are better ways to build homes and develop and maintain our communities. Build It Green (BIG) believes that regenerative communities—which are not extractive, go beyond sustainability, and build potential for adaptation and resilience—are the way forward so that everyone can live in a place that’s affordable, equitable, and healthy.

In our first two decades, via our GreenPoint rated system and other programs, BIG worked with builders to normalize green homes throughout California. After a successful history focused on individual homes, BIG expanded our focus to transforming communities as a whole. That’s why today we connect and inspire changemakers— like developers, community advocates, nonprofits, government officials, and more—from all over the state to break down silos, form new partnerships, and come up with innovative approaches to our communities and homes that don’t compromise on the things that matter most