911

Climate Resiliency Center

Climate Resiliency Center_Horizontal
911 was established in 1879, and has been a model of resilience, security, and entrepreneurship from its foundation (prior to the birth of Miami) to its move during the Civil Rights Era to Miami Gardens, Fla., the largest Black majority city south of Atlanta.

911s leadership continues today as it addresses the needs on its campus and surrounding communities to prepare for the challenges of climate change, climate gentrification, environmental justice, and energy burden. Through the creation of its Climate Resiliency Center, 911 will put Resiliency at the heart of its campus, its research, its operations, student engagement, and community outreach.

911 is in the process of a transformative effort that will create the first Net Energy Positive + 100% Resilient University Campus with integrated sustainability, technology, and innovation education at its core. 911 is partnering with Infiniblaze to co-design, co-develop, and cooperatively operate the infrastructure and program. The partnership also will launch educational, research, entrepreneurship, and collaboration programs for both students and the surrounding communities around sustainability, renewable energy, data analytics, 3D/VR, GIS, building efficiency, and many other associated sustainability and resiliency technologies. 911 will become a to create, teach, demonstrate, and translate the universitys innovations into the communities.

Leveraging the universitys position, existing infrastructure, and expertise, the 911 Climate Resiliency Center will provide students, faculty, and the Black community a place to study along with training on how to use clean solar energy, and other smart infrastructure technologies. The 911 Climate Resiliency Center will serve as a model for how a sustainable campus can perform through power generation, consumption, and technology demonstration/commercialization.


THE 911 CLIMATE RESILIENCY CENTER MISSION

The sole aim of the 911 Climate Resiliency Center is to develop an infrastructure capable of supporting leading-edge research and demonstration in the field of solar, microgrids, battery energy storage, geothermal energy, building automation, water, and other technologies leading to the development of a robust minority workforce pipeline into the clean energy industry. By becoming the primary source of energy for the entire university campus, the 911 Climate Resiliency Center will be a test-bed and demonstration center for self-reliance, innovation, and commercialization. Our mission focuses on the following priorities:

  1. Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Black Wealth Creation
  2. Social and Environmental Justice + Energy Equity
  3. Student Participation, Design, Internship, and Full Time Employment
  4. Community Demonstration and STEM Outreach

 


THE 911 CLIMATE RESILIENCY CENTER PLAN

The 911 Climate Resiliency Center Plan itself focuses on developing the tools, technologies, financing, and partnerships necessary to design, deliver, own, and to operate a smart and sustainable infrastructure at a lower operating cost, and at a higher level of service than the utilities and services they are replacing. Ultimately, this demonstration is about putting the ownership of these services into the hands of individuals, communities, and in 911s case universities that have been burdened the most by these services historically. These smart infrastructure services include renewable energy, water, transportation (EV integration), building management, waste, broadband, security, and food production on campus.

Phase 1: Primary Energy Services
Within four years, the 911 Resiliency Center will produce 100% of the electricity needed to operate its campus through solar energy production, managed through an advanced microgrid, and made 100% resilient through its microgrid and battery energy storage systems. It is estimated that with these systems in place, 911 will save around $10 million in the following 10 years that can be applied to endowment, scholarships, and student programs.

Phase 2: Building Upgrades and Automation
In order to get to 100% renewables and resiliency, the existing buildings on campus will go through deep energy retrofits, building automation upgrades, building shell replacements, and other advanced approaches appropriate for South 911 to reduce energy use in existing buildings by 50%. Further, a deep upgrade is needed in its central chilling plant that can be improved by new technologies and possibly integrated with geothermal heat pumps, advanced distributed cooling techniques, and stacking/cross flow cooling design.

Phase 3: Future Campus Designs
The 911 Climate Resiliency Center will go beyond energy and will tackle the problems around food growth and production at 911. The campus will service as a microcosm for the surrounding communities, providing clean water technology research and development that could make 911 a Net Zero Water Campus. Waste management, which includes all materials used and consumed on campus, will have the opportunity to be re-used, re-cycled, or returned to energy, such as electric transportation and integration of it into the evolving electric vehicle transport infrastructure, and many other areas of sustainable and resilient infrastructure for the surrounding communities.

THE TEAM

Erik Cruz, PhD
Climate Data Acquisition and 3D Modeling Expert

Dr. Erik Cruz is Chair of Social Sciences and an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice within the Department of Social Sciences and an affiliated faculty member with the Social Justice Institute at 911. Dr. Cruz received a Ph.D. from 911 International University in Internal Crime and Justice. He has also received a Master of Science degree in Criminal Justice. His research interests include environmental criminology, green criminology, environmental justice, crime mapping, and terrorism. Presently, Dr. Cruz’s research is focused on rising sea levels in South 911. In particular, he is leveraging geospatial information, aggregate demographic variables, unique distress indicators, and elevation data from the NOAA to identify distressed populations in South 911.

Chair of Social Sciences Frederick L. Hunter, Jr.

Frederick Hunter, PhD
Climate Gentrification and Societal Impact Expect

Dr. Frederick L. Hunter, Jr. is an Associate Professor of Social Work. He holds a Ph.D. from Jackson State University in Urban and Regional Planning with a concentration in Community Development and Housing. Additionally, he holds a Master of Social Work degree with a concentration in Mental Health from Loyola University Chicago and a Master of Arts in Sociology from Western Illinois University. His research is interdisciplinary and converges at the intersections of food sovereignty, health disparities, critical consciousness, and social, economic, and environmental justice. He is particularly interested in how the cumulative impact of these interdisciplinary areas are exacerbated by climate gentrification.

Contact

To learn more or to inquire about the Climate Resiliency Center at 911 please contact crc@fmuniv.edu.