Author: Gary Decker

By Tristan Navera, Washington Business Journal

D.C. Green Bank’s inaugural chief is exiting as the financial organization prepares to emerge from its “startup” phase and take advantage of federal resources now available to support sustainable construction.

Eli Hopson, founding CEO of the 2.5-year-old program, is leaving to become chief operating officer and executive director of the Coalition for Green Capital, a nonprofit that will soon apply with the Environmental Protection Agency to became the nation’s first green bank. Friday was his last day on the job.

D.C. Green Bank CFO Jean Nelson-Houpert has been named interim leader in Hopson’s place. The board hasn’t disclosed a process for naming a permanent CEO but said one is ongoing.The institution was established by the District in 2018 to provide financing mechanisms for sustainable building upgrades.

Under Hopson’s tenure, the D.C. program grew from $2 million in loan commitments in its first year to a projected $30 million in its third. That’s meant ever-bigger financing deals, like a $7 million loan to PosiGen to provide solar energy at no cost to 350 low- and moderate-income D.C. households.

“I’ve been proud of what we accomplished, the progression of learning while dealing with this volume of loans,” Hopson said in an interview. “It’s been extraordinarily fast given the complications.”

(Washington, D.C.) DC Green Bank announced today the departure of the bank’s inaugural Chief Executive Officer, Eli Hopson, and an orderly transition to interim-CEO Jean Nelson-Houpert, the bank’s current Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Hopson leaves DC Green Bank after 2.5 years of committed service, growing the institution’s investment portfolio from approximately $2 million in loan commitments in his first fiscal year to nearly $30 million in his third fiscal year in charge. He is leaving his post as DCGB CEO to join the Coalition for Green Capital as its Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, supporting the non-profit financial institution’s planned application to the Environmental Protection Agency to serve as the United States’ first national green bank to finance green projects and initiatives across the country.

During Mr. Hopson’s tenure, DC Green Bank saw incredible growth, not only in terms of the size of its investments, but also in capacity and stakeholder relationships. Beginning as its first employee in April 2020 in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, he oversaw the hiring of the bank’s Leadership Team and closed the bank’s first loan, well ahead of most green banks’ initial investment timetables. As of his departure the bank is positioned to take the next step in its maturation process while marshaling the tremendous amount of resources set to come into the District following the passage of the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.

“It has been the pleasure of my career to lead DC Green Bank from its very first days of operation and to serve the residents of the District,” said Hopson. “I want to thank the Board of Directors and our outstanding staff for their trust in my leadership and for supporting me throughout my tenure. We have achieved an incredible amount in our nearly three years together, and I aim to ensure that the new national green bank builds on the outstanding work we did together right here in DC. It is bittersweet as my time with the bank comes to an end; however, I know that the future of the institution is in fantastic hands and that the District will continue to be a national leader that everyone will look to for inspiration.”

“We greatly appreciate Eli’s thoughtful service to the District and DCGB as our inaugural CEO. This pioneering venture is a proven model of partnership to ensure that the future of our city is cleaner, greener, and more inclusive with real investments in climate mitigation. The Board wishes Eli every success in his next role to ensure that this country demonstrates strong climate leadership from coast to coast,” said Chair of the DC Green Bank Board of Directors, Brandi Colander. “It is indeed a testament to the success of the green bank model to see it elevated at the national level, we are grateful that our own leadership, from the nation’s capital will continue to shape that work. As we make this transition, we are fortunate to have a proven leader in Ms. Nelson-Houpert that can step into the role of interim-CEO. Ms. Nelson-Houpert has demonstrated a solid handle of the DCGB mission, is a seasoned professional and financial institution veteran prepared to lead. We thank her tremendously for her service.”

Ms. Nelson-Houpert joined the DC Green Bank staff in September 2020 as part of the Leadership Team and quickly provided project finance deal due diligence and implemented strong financial and accounting policies to ensure the institution could fulfill its mission in line with its core values.

“I want to express my gratitude to the Board for their confidence in me to step into the interim-CEO role and I want to voice my sincere congratulations to Eli on his important new opportunity,” said Ms. Nelson-Houpert. “Working with Eli over these last years to establish and grow the bank to where we are today has been an amazing experience. I look forward to continuing the hard work to fulfill our mission, partnering closely with the Board, city leadership, our wonderful staff, and the communities we serve to support the transition to a cleaner DC.”

Mr. Hopson’s last day with the bank will be October 14^th. Ms. Nelson-Houpert’s interim-CEO leadership is effective immediately. The DC Green Bank Board of Directors will continue to support the smooth transition of leadership and oversight of governance duties.

NEW YORK — NRDC Release – The new Inflation Reduction Act is poised to make major investments across the country and in disadvantaged communities to more equitably spur development of green technologies that reduce or avoid climate pollution, according to participants at a Climate Week green bank event today in New York City, featuring keynote addresses from Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan and Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, sponsors of legislation creating a national climate bank.

“The new climate bill can be a real game changer for the U.S. on investing in clean energy, climate action and equity, if implemented the right way,” said Sarah Dougherty, director of the Green Finance Center at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council.) “Green Banks have a proven track record globally stimulating new private investment and starting new, self-sustaining markets for deploying climate solutions, including in low-income and marginalized communities. And they can play a key role in the U.S. addressing the climate crisis and building resilient communities.”

The new law contains $27 billion for a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund that can be used by cities, states, or Tribal Governments, new or existing green banks, as well as other long-standing institutions like Community Development Financial Institutions and credit unions, to cut climate pollution, clean up the air and drive clean energy, with more than half of the funding explicitly directed to low-income and disadvantaged communities.

Green banks include stand-alone institutions and existing public development banks that are transformed with strong climate mandates and additional climate finance capacities. They can play a key role in advancing country priorities on climate and sustainable development goals.

The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund demonstrates the U.S. is serious about investing in clean energy, efficient buildings, and resilient infrastructure in disadvantaged communities, so businesses, families and individuals will benefit from cleaner air, better housing and infrastructure.

Around the world, green banks are a proven model. By sharing investment risks, building local capacity, and transforming markets, green banks help cities, states, and countries scale up climate action, ambition, and move closer to achieving climate targets under the international Paris Agreement on climate change.

Through mid-2021, Green Bank Network members globally invested $54.4 billion to support renewable energy, energy efficiency and other projects valued at $134.7 billion. Together, these green bank-supported projects are estimated to have avoided 48.03 million metric tons of carbon pollution, equivalent to taking 22.4 million cars off the road.

“We have an incredible opportunity to demonstrate the transformational impact that green finance can deliver through a partnership between a national green bank, state and local green banks, and community financial institutions, said Eli Hopson, CEO, DC Green Bank. “In our communities right here in DC, we are already seeing the benefits of green jobs, clean energy, and equitable development. This new economic paradigm will create a powerful enabling environment to ensure that the future is clean and green and that no communities are left behind.”

Read the Full Release Here

By Alison Bennett, S&P Global

Some industry leaders are advocating for billions of dollars in new federal funding for green banks to go toward a national nonprofit institution that could jump-start the clean energy market and help state and local banks.

A green bank is a public, quasi-public or nonprofit institution that uses public funds to attract private investment in clean energy funds. More than 20 such banks now exist at the state and local level in the U.S. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed by President Joe Biden on Aug. 16, provides a total of $27 billion for green banks through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.

Debate remains about whether that funding should be directed toward individual green banks or should be used to create a national bank that could leverage capital and create financial products to generate more money for green banks nationwide. The Coalition for Green Capital and the American Green Bank Consortium, as well as some lawmakers, are pushing for the latter option, saying that direct grants would not be enough to help the industry provide funding across the board.

Of the total $27 billion, $7 billion will go to states, municipalities, tribal governments and eligible recipients to enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy or benefit from zero-emission technologies or other types of emission reduction activities. The other $20 billion is earmarked for eligible nonprofits to provide funding assistance to green projects through direct and indirect investments — money that will be administered by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The DC Green Bank, part of the District of Columbia’s government, said any money is welcome.

“This really is a game-changer for us in terms of scale,” DC Green Bank CEO Eli Hopson said in an interview. “On a citywide scale, we are going to transform residents’ lives. With this volume, we can standardize products and work with private capital markets. It really is a transformation.”

Read the Full Article Here

By Keith Loria, Commercial Observer

A joint venture between DC Green Bank and Rainplan has closed on an initial $2 million of financing to increase access and affordability for projects across Washington, D.C., designed to manage heavy rainfall, prevent flooding and filter storm runoff.

The loan will deliver financial support for 14 residential projects and 10 commercial projects in the area. The loan will also fund stormwater support for scalable projects, including those in surrounding green mobility hubs, houses of worship, local businesses and residential communities, with a focus on Wards 5, 7 and 8.

Each of the stormwater projects will incorporate green infrastructure to mitigate the negative impacts of water runoff and enhance neighborhood streetscapes. It’s projected that an estimated 100,000 gallons of water will be captured and filtered for each rainstorm.

“We have found that many residential property owners in the D.C. area are concerned about basement flooding after storms and erosion of their landscaping from their property,” Kara Young, an expert at Rainplan, told CO. “As an example, if they install a rain garden or use bio-retention like planting trees, it will soak up the necessary rain and keep it from flowing or flowing into property foundations.”

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DC Green Bank and Rainplan announced today the closing of an initial $2,000,000 deal to increase access and affordability for stormwater management infrastructure across the District. The loan agreement is groundbreaking in its commitment to deliver financing for both commercial and residential projects as well as its approach to diverse and scalable projects, including surrounding green mobility hubs, houses of worship, local businesses, and residential communities, with an emphasis on Wards 5, 7, and 8. All of the stormwater projects will take place in the District’s MS4 (Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System) service area, incorporating green infrastructure to mitigate negative water runoff impacts and enhance neighborhood streetscapes.

“Traditionally stormwater investments have been singular commercial projects impacting one District area. What is unique about this deal is that it promotes equitable access to financing regardless of project location or size,” says Jenny Janis, the Ecosystem Lead of Rainplan. “The $2M loan is critical to enabling green infrastructure participation across all wards.”

Cooper Martin, the Incentive Program Administrator at Rainplan, said of the project, “We are proud to work with DC Green Bank to support our stormwater portfolio. It is vital that we work with partners that understand the complexity and potential of this work and are willing to invest in innovative approaches. We look forward to delivering new stormwater projects across the District – prioritizing communities that are all-too-often left behind – and helping to build a more resilient city for all.”

DC Green Bank’s four core investment areas are solar, green and energy efficient buildings, clean transportation, and stormwater green infrastructure. Eli Hopson, CEO of DC Green Bank, said of the investment, “By supporting stormwater projects DC Green Bank helps to protect people, property, and our environment from adverse impacts of climate change, create good jobs, and provide valuable services to entire communities. Rainplan’s innovative digital platform puts information at your fingertips to pursue projects in an affordable way.” This is DC Green Bank’s second investment in an emerging stormwater infrastructure project pipeline in the District.

Read the Full Release Below 

The fight against climate change will need big investments in infrastructure like solar and wind farms, transmission grids and low-carbon industry. But it also needs many more small-scale investments for hundreds of millions of homes and businesses — and that kind of work is best done locally.

So say green-bank proponents like Reed Hundt, the former U.S. Federal Communications Commission chair under the Clinton administration. As co-founder and CEO of the Coalition for Green Capital, Hundt has spent the past 13 years working to expand the role of green banks, entities that use public funds to supply low-cost, long-term financing for projects that would otherwise struggle to get it.

Since the first green bank was launched in Connecticut in 2011, 23 have sprung up across 17 states, drawing in further private-sector lending for carbon-reducing projects such as rooftop solar, efficiency retrofits and electric heat-pump installations. Last week’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act brought the next step in that campaign: the creation of a $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, or in other words, a national green bank.

The fund will be set up by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a stand-alone entity; it’s required to begin disbursing funds within 180 days of the law’s passage. It will primarily work through state and local green banks, directing $20 billion to fund ongoing lending, loan-loss reserves and other activities. Of that amount, $8 billion is set aside for low-income and disadvantaged communities. These communities will also be the focus of the fund’s remaining $7 billion in financial assistance available for states, municipalities and tribal governments.

Eli Hopson, CEO of the DC Green Bank in Washington, D.C. — the first city-based entity of its kind in the U.S. — added that green banks can lower the risk profile of relatively novel forms of lending for private-sector banks, as entities like NY Green Bank have done for community-solar projects and affordable-housing efficiency and electrification projects.

“For a commercial banker, these projects take as much work as a $10 million project or a $100 million project,” he said. ​“For them to learn the new market of solar credits, get comfortable with the technology — that’s a big investment of time and resources.”

Jessica Pitts, co-founder and principal of Flywheel Development, a Washington, D.C.–based sustainable development company that’s working with DC Green Bank on installing community solar in the Fairfax Village community, noted that ​“the challenge with financing is the relative newness of the solar market compared to other business ventures, like restaurants or apartment buildings, that traditional banks are comfortable with financing.”

“One of the roles the green bank has served in working with us is legitimizing solar as an asset class or business enterprise that can be financed and should be financed, that it’s viable and makes sense,” she said.

DC Green Bank is also working with PosiGen on its low-income solar programs, which have already landed enough customers to exhaust its existing $7 million loan facility, CEO Hopson said. While these loans are still in their early days, other green banks with longer track records ​“report back to us that they have fewer challenges with loans in low-income communities than they do with more mainline business projects they fund,” he said. One potential reason is that, while businesses may ​“use bankruptcy as a tool that can be deployed from time to time,” low-income community residents and groups ​“are just committed to making it work.”

DC Green Bank is seeking additional funding from the national green bank to double the size of its low-income solar program to $15 million, Hopson said. That’s one of a host of projects that are part of the Coalition for Green Capital’s $21 billion backlog estimate.

“From a national perspective, $27 billion invested in sustainable finance goes a long way toward drawing in the leverage from private institutions to say, ​‘This is a real commitment,’” he said.

Read the Full Article Here