ioby is coming to Washington, DC!

Building on our existing relationship with our nation’s capital—that’s included some awesome projects and grassroots fundraising workshops with the city’s parks department—we’re super excited to be opening an office in Washington, DC early next year.

We’re especially happy about our growing   partnership with the District Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE), an agency with a mission to improve the quality of life of DC’s residents by protecting and restoring the environment, conserving natural resources, mitigating pollution, and educating the public about ways to secure a sustainable future.

Common Good City Farm

[DC’s Common Good City Farm has worked with ioby to raise funds for its youth internship program. Image courtesy Common Good.]

One of DOEE’s particular goals at this time is to support neighbor-led change in several DC districts that have historically been disenfranchised—specifically, wards 5, 7, and 8. The agency—and ioby—believe that residents of these neighborhoods can lead the charge to meet many of DC’s sustainability goals, and can benefit from more support and education about grassroots coalition-building, crowdfunding, and the many possible ways they can improve their communities. That’s where we come in.

DOEE and ioby hope to support citizen-led projects that align with the   Sustainable DC program, the city’s major planning effort to make it the most sustainable town in the nation. Sustainable DC was first initiated in 2011 and involved more than 700 resident volunteers in drafting a vision and developing recommendations for goals and actions around the built environment, climate, energy, food, nature, transportation, waste, water, and the green economy. We’re so glad to be lending our expertise to this community-led greening and urban development effort that’s already reporting considerable progress.

We’re throwing a little party in DC this Thursday, October 8 – that’s tomorrow! – to say a more formal hello and explain how we plan to begin working with our new DC constituents. Registration is still open!

We’re planning more exciting expansions for next year, too: ioby will be launching offices in Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland in early 2016 as well! If all goes according to plan, we’ll be onboarding all of our new staff in these different cities at the same time. Keep an eye on our website for job postings.

[For more on  our approach to getting to know new cities, read our post about Detroit.]

We’re really looking forward to putting down more roots in Washington, DC: a diverse city with a monumental history that remains a hub for new ideas and community-led action. Please spread the word to your DC friends and colleagues that ioby is coming to town! We’ll post news and updates as we get settled.