Oakland Ecoblock: Transforming A Neighborhood into a Model for Long-Term Resilience
Since 2019, Sherwood project manager, Craig Boman, has been working with UC Berkeley’s California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE) on the Oakland EcoBlock, a decarbonization and resilience pilot project that is transforming an existing block of residential and commercial properties in Oakland, California, with shared energy- and water-efficient technologies. The experimental project aims to evaluate the integrated design and development process and illustrate the benefits of urban, block- scale retrofits including solar-powered electrification, and ultimately to accelerate the adoption of similar retrofits across California and beyond.
EcoBlock is one of four grant recipients of the California Energy Commission (CEC)’s Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program, which invests in scientific and technological research to accelerate the transformation of the electricity sector to meet the state’s energy and climate goals. Sherwood’s team successfully identified and applied for a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant, which has helped fund the EcoBlock stormwater retrofits, including the construction of a bioretention facility, block-wide concrete removal and planting, and the implementation of a flow and water quality monitoring program.
Over the years, EcoBlock has made progress forward, including designing and engineering a first-of-its-kind urban community microgrid with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E); working with the EcoBlock community to establish a non-profit association that co-owns the shared electrical equipment, including rooftop solar; and, in collaboration with Greywater Action, installing a greywater system (shown below) that recycles laundry water for outdoor irrigation.
In 2024, we reached a significant milestone in our own contribution to the project, as the Sherwood-designed bioretention area was installed to intercept, treat, and detain the entire block’s stormwater within the existing city right of way. We removed unnecessary concrete and replaced it with landscaped areas that increase the perviousness of the neighborhood. A few weeks later, in January 2025, we also added six new trees to the block, selecting native species that help to maximize shade and minimize urban heat, including saratoga laurel, toyon, and purple leaf plums.
We’ve worked closely with the Friends of Sausal Creek throughout the EcoBlock project, especially during this implementation phase. We’ve designed the new bioretention zone (shown above) to slow and reduce stormwater runoff as it travels down the block and drains directly into Sausal Creek. This minimizes erosion, sedimentation, and pollutants at the outfall and protects the water quality of the adjacent creek. We worked with the Friends of Sausal Creek to purchase plants from their native plant nursery and hosted a planting day with the community in December 2024 to install these local plants from the upstream regional park within the new grant-funded bioretention facility.
The same EPA grant also funds a monitoring program, which will measure the amount of water flowing into the creek and its quality. We designed the bioretention facility with this program in mind, including ports where sensors can be placed to measure water flow and quality before and after the facility’s installation. Our goal is to demonstrate, with this collected data, that incremental updates like a stormwater bioretention facility on a single city block can have a measurable positive impact on a community’s infrastructure and its neighboring ecologies.
We each need to make investments that move the needle on climate change, but it’s significantly more achievable when we work at the block scale rather than individually. The EcoBlock model illustrates that it’s possible for a community to design and implement a shared system that benefits everyone—and to receive funding that helps with costs. The positive influence of the EcoBlock project on the community has already been impressive. Imagine the cumulative impact when multiple EcoBlocks exist in a city!
Note: All photos courtesy of the California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE)/UC Berkeley.