EcoServices

ECOPARTNERS’ services fall into four areas:

  1. PROJECT ASSISTANCE. We provide technical support to green building/community development project teams.

  2. WOMEN’S ADVOCACY SERVICES. We offer legal, medical, psychological, educational, and financial assistance to women who are survivors of abuse, trafficking, incarceration, or poverty.

  3. EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOPS. We offer relevant and timely educational workshops to building professionals, home, and business owners.

  4. INFORMATION CLEARINGHOUSE. We also operate as an information clearinghouse to the community at-large, through our website, social media, brochures, and presentations to interested groups and businesses.

Project Assistance

ECOPARTNERS provides a wide range of technical assistance to green building projects in Illinois. We focus on emerging projects that are community based, often in low to middle income neighborhoods in order to spur on regional economic development.

Energy Audit

Every good retrofit project starts with a thorough energy audit, also known as a home energy assessment. It tells you how much energy your home consumes and helps you evaluate what measures you can take to make your home more energy efficient. ECOPARTNERS’ professional staff has a depth of experience in conducting a thorough energy audit.

Design Support

ECOPARTNERS helps constituents perform a detailed analysis of today’s state-of-the-art building design technologies using eQuest, (“the Quick Energy Simulation Tool”), a sophisticated energy use simulation program. This provides reliable guidance in determining the energy performance of design alternatives. You can download eQuest here (version 3.64 here or contact ECOPARTNERS at info@ecopartners.us for questions about the eQuest interface, simulation methodology, or results).

Funding Guidance

ECOPARTNERS staff understand that a key part of “going green” is tied to that other green… money. ECOPARTNERS provides resources for financial advice on how to fund green projects, including the use of innovative financing mechanisms, such as:

  1. The Revolving Loan Fund is a financing mechanism that enables loans to be provided to pay for an energy retrofit project’s upfront capital cost, which is then paid back from the energy savings generated from the project.

  2. Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEMs), enable homeowners and buyers to add energy-efficient upgrades as part of the underlying mortgage financing transaction.

  3. Working with the municipality to help implement financing secured by a special tax assessment on the property, which is then paid off as part of the property’s usual property tax bill

  4. Educating the participants on how to find and apply for special tax incentives and grants to fund the projects.

We know that financial incentives are key. That’s why our knowledge of the available financial tools and our strong working relationship with banks and agencies that can provide financial aid and incentive programs help to make going green makes good sense on every level.

Some of the financial tools are available through:

Chicago – Green Permit and Green Homes Programs.

– Chicago – Small Business Improvement Fund
– Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation Grants
– Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing
– Special Assessment for Solar Energy Systems (Property tax incentive)
– Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) Programs
– Utility Rebate Programs

Green Contractors

ECOPARTNERS has very close ties to the contractor community. We make it part of our mission to move more contractors into that category of “green” and we firmly believe that the shortest path to green contractors is starting with existing contractors and providing education on how to make that transition.  Our architect and design team has a deep knowledge of the requirements for contractors to go green.

Womens Advocacy Services

Women’s advocacy services is a program that aims to support, empower, and protect women who face various forms of discrimination, violence, and oppression. These services may include providing legal, medical, psychological, educational, and financial assistance to women who are survivors of abuse, trafficking, incarceration, or poverty. Ecopartner’s services are focused on non-English speaking women in Chicago, IL, who typically might lack access to adequate services due to their language barrier.

Educational Workshops

There is a huge knowledge deficit and even confusion about what it means to “go green” ECOPARTNERS firmly believes that an educated public and developer community is essential in achieving real change.

Through a series of workshops at the local level, ECOPARTNERS brings knowledge and expertise to the people that need it the most.

Information Clearinghouse

We, at ECOPARTNERS, know that we need to disseminate accurate, useful information in as many ways as possible. In the age of social networking and mobile information, we must be where our constituents are, whether it is in the “real world” or the virtual. ECOPARTNERS has a multi-pronged approach to information access, which includes the use of this website along with a blog, YouTube, Facebook, and other social networking media.

Questions? Contact Us