BlocPower CEO Donnel Baird Named TIME's Inaugural "Dreamer of the Year" as Part of its "Person of the Year" Celebration
TIME recognized BlocPower founder and CEO Donnel Baird as the inaugural recipient of its 2022 "Dreamer of the Year" award, which was presented at the publication's annual "Person of the Year" celebration.
NEW YORK, Dec. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- BlocPower, a leading national climate tech company focused on greening aging urban buildings, today announced that its founder and CEO, Donnel Baird, was the inaugural recipient of TIME's 2022 "Dreamer of the Year" award, which was presented at the publication's annual "Person of the Year" celebration. The company was previously named to the second annual TIME100 Most Influential Companies list highlighting companies making an extraordinary impact around the world.
"The dream of BlocPower is that we can go into an undervalued community and train and hire people to transform their own community and lead the way on helping all of America learn how to solve the climate crisis," said BlocPower Founder and CEO Donnel Baird. "BlocPower's vision is smarter, green, and healthier buildings for everybody. "
BlocPower has retrofitted more than 1,200 buildings in more than 25 American cities, replacing unhealthy, fossil fuel-burning heating and cooling systems with clean, efficient, all-electric air source heat pumps, water heaters and solar panels. It leverages advanced technologies to monitor energy consumption, digitally simulate the most impactful green energy solutions, and dramatically lower the cost of construction and installation.
In November 2021, BlocPower announced a partnership with the City of Ithaca, NY to retrofit its entire building stock of more than 6,000 buildings by 2030, making it the first large-scale, city-wide electrification initiative in the U.S. In 2022, the company announced a similar retrofit project in Menlo Park, CA for 10,000 buildings, and several other large-scale decarbonization initiatives in Denver, Oakland and San Jose.
To support these and other projects, BlocPower launched a Civilian Climate Corps to hire and train the next generation green workforce from NYC communities adversely impacted by gun violence, supporting them secure good paying jobs, career opportunities and hope for a better future. In its first year, the program trained more than 1,700 individuals (81% of which were previously under or unemployed), leading to more than 400 job placements in heat pump and solar installation, building energy auditing and related fields, and a 28% combined reduction in incidents of gun violence in communities where the Civilian Climate Corps hosted cohorts.
About BlocPower
BlocPower is a Brooklyn-based climate technology company rapidly greening American cities. Since its founding in 2014, the company has completed energy projects in 1,200+ buildings and delivers results ahead of schedule and under budget. BlocPower utilizes its proprietary software for analysis, leasing, project management, and monitoring of urban clean energy projects. The company is backed by the world's top investors, including Goldman Sachs, Kapor Capital, Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund, Andreessen Horowitz and American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact. In 2022, Fast Company named BlocPower the #4 Most Innovative Company in the World.
Media Contact
Candace Jones, BlocPower, 1 718-924-2873, [email protected]
SOURCE BlocPower
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