ReThink Advisors is working with the largest public hospital in Northeast Ohio, MetroHealth Systems, as it undertakes a $1 billion redevelopment plan of its 52-acre medical campus. This project will include a major community outreach effort, guided by ReThink Advisors, to improve the health, wellness and resilience of the surrounding neighborhoods.

To achieve these goals, MetroHealth is embracing the EcoDistricts Protocol, a new standard for urban and community development. ReThink Advisors will guide the EcoDistricts process for MetroHealth Systems, the first hospital-led commitment to this innovative, comprehensive approach to equitable and sustainable district development. The process for establishing a certified EcoDistrict includes prioritizing equitable growth and wellness, in addition to environmental sustainability and resilience.

The EcoDistrict approach to leveraging major urban regeneration projects is based on peer-reviewed research that has established a critical finding: community resilience is fundamentally an issue of social cohesion, which is impacted as much by economic opportunity and wellness as it is by the built environment. The MetroHealth EcoDistrict, spanning nearly 600 acres, is the hub of Latino culture in Northeast Ohio, boasting the highest concentration of Hispanic residents in the state.