Joe Morris

Joe Morris is a long-time organizer within the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) network, and currently directs Metro IAF’s Clean Energy Initiative, which he helped launch in 2020. Through this initiative, Metro IAF helps faith and community institutions, particularly those in low- and moderate-income communities, plan and carry out decarbonization retrofit projects. The initiative also prioritizes clean, affordable energy in affordable housing – reducing energy use and emissions in existing homes and multifamily buildings, and incorporating zero-emissions-ready approaches into Metro IAF’s pipeline of new housing construction.

Joe has worked as a lead organizer within several IAF affiliates in New York and New Jersey since 1991, helping local faith and civic leaders build power and effectively use it to create lasting change that matters to their communities. He has been involved in shaping strategies and guiding leaders through dozens of successful fights and campaigns on issues ranging from large-scale toxic waste cleanup, addiction treatment and harm reduction, remediating mold and neglect in public housing, renovating parks, and many others.

Through their immersion in clean-energy implementation over the last three years, Joe and Metro IAF have seen successful retrofit projects as well as technically and financially problematic ones, giving them first-hand experience with the critical practices and relationships needed to achieve successful outcomes for homeowners, building owners, and residents. Their hope is to use these findings – and their relationships of trust in communities nationwide – to help ensure that the drive to decarbonize America’s buildings succeeds.