ND Alum, Erin Gill '08, was named Bloomberg Cities "Innovator of the Week" for her leadership in her role as the Director of Sustainability for the city of Knoxville,Tennessee. A recent article on Medium by Bloomberg Cities highlighted Erin's work and commitment to a project that seeks to weatherize low-income homes in her community.
As the article states, "In Knoxville each year, thousands of families living on low incomes are forced to choose between paying their energy bills or the rent. The city spends about $6 million a year to help people pay those energy bills. But Erin Gill calls that a Band-Aid approach that doesn’t address the underlying problem: that many people are living in older homes that waste a lot of energy. Gill built an ambitious and successful strategy for weatherizing these homes that now has upgraded more than 1,300 residences with insulation, new heat pumps, and other energy-efficiency improvements. On average, residents who have had the work done are saving about $500 per year on their energy bills."
Read the full article.