Brooklyn-based cleantech company BlocPower is squarely positioned with a mission to fight climate change while solving social injustices, focusing on renewable energy, reduction of carbon pollution, and urban redevelopment in lower-income areas. BlocPower was founded in 2014 by Donnel Baird, the child of Guyanese immigrants, who drew on his experience growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn in an apartment without well-functioning heating and cooling systems. This retrofitting of older buildings can lead to major energy savings, 30% to 50%, and a reduction of at least 40% in greenhouse gas emissions, BlocPower says. In Buffalo, BlocPower inked a contract with utility National Fuel Gas Company to upgrade hybrid heating and cooling systems in 34 low-to-middle income residential and commercial buildings. It also sealed a deal with Fujitsu General America to bring a better-functioning automatic heating and cooling unit to the U.S.

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