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Mayor's innovation team narrows Bloomberg Sustainable Cities project to energy‑bill affordability and hires planned
Summary
Robert James, director of the Nashville Innovation Team, told the Sustainability Advisory Committee the team's Bloomberg American Sustainable Cities work will focus on reducing energy burden and energy‑bill affordability and that hiring and research will accelerate this summer.
Robert James, director of the Nashville Innovation Team in the mayor's office, briefed the Sustainability Advisory Committee on progress implementing the city's Bloomberg American Sustainable Cities grant work and on staffing and project priorities.
James said the team is using human‑centered design and a phased "path to public innovation" (aim, design, prototype, activate, sustain) to develop local solutions that reduce energy burden and increase economic opportunity. "Our draft aim focuses on reducing energy burden and increasing economic opportunity," James said. The team's draft problem frame is energy‑bill affordability; James said that problem frame will guide upcoming qualitative and quantitative research and community prototyping.
James said the innovation team is hiring two additional permanent staff — a civic designer for community research and prototyping and a data analytics manager to build dashboards and a data strategy — and that contract design support (Emily Ayanna Cohen) has assisted while positions are filled. He said the grant fully funds the three positions for three years and the team also receives support from a national subject‑matter expert network.
James described several near‑term pilots and grant efforts. The mayor's office partnered with NES and TVA on "Installation for Impact," a grant‑funded pilot that directs matched funds to install measures at older adult homes; the initial grant was roughly $75,000, matched by utility partners. The office helped design a greenhouse gas reduction/municipal investment fund opportunity aimed at market‑building for resilient, affordable housing and assisted a Prize for Cities application to support NES's Home Uplift program to address administrative bottlenecks.
James said the team has been building a partnership table with local community‑based organizations — including Recycle Reinvest, the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and Stand Up Nashville — to inform and socialize work and to recruit subject‑matter experts and stakeholders for research. He asked committee members to complete a forthcoming survey to identify subject‑matter expertise and suggested the committee could help connect the team to local stakeholders for interviews and prototyping.
James said design research will ramp up over the summer with interviews and community outreach and that the team will return with early findings and prototypes for further input. He asked the committee for assistance publicizing pilot opportunities and for help identifying potential grant partners and local subject‑matter experts.
