Joel Howrani Heeres

About Joel

Joel Howrani Heeres is Detroit’s first Sustainability Director, leading a new Sustainability Office charged with facilitating healthy, green, vibrant, and accessible neighborhoods for all Detroiters through collaboration, engagement, and process and policy improvement. Joel brings a wealth of experience on urban sustainability to this position, having served in multiple roles in the municipal, non-profit, and corporate sectors. At EcoWorks, he lead sustainability and climate action planning in 11 southeast Michigan communities and served as Managing Director of the Southeast Michigan Regional Energy Office.  Over the last year, the Office of Sustainability has had over 6,800 interactions with Detroiters to better understand their challenges and ideas for making Detroit more equitable, economically thriving, and environmentally healthy.