The American Green Bank Consortium and the Coalition for Green Capital have just published a report outlining the state of green banks in the United States. In total, the report finds that American Green Banks have caused $7.0 billion in clean energy investment since 2011, with $1.69 billion of this investment taking place in calendar year 2020. The green bank concept was first proposed in 2009, and there are now 21 green banks in the U.S., with more in development.

A green bank uses public capital to mobilize more private investment into underserved green and resilient financing markets to fill market gaps. Green banks have the ultimate goal of enabling private capital partners to enter clean energy markets at scale without green bank assistance.

The mobilization ratio (overall investment/green bank investment) of American green banks was 3.7 to 1 as of the end of calendar year 2020, meaning that every green bank dollar invested resulted in $3.70 of overall investment in the American clean energy economy.

The green bank impacts presented in this report are the result of information gathering performed by the Coalition for Green Capital (CGC). Key metrics were collected from the public reports issued by each green bank as well as direct information provided to CGC by various green banks upon request. Data is from calendar year 2020.

Read Full Report

DC Green Bank Board Member Priya Jayachandran, along with partners at the Urban Institute, recently published an article about Preserving and Expanding the Supply of Affordable Rental Housing.

The authors wrote about:

Making sure that families remain housed during the pandemic and related economic downtown is critical. But longer-term effects could reduce the supply of rental units affordable to people earning low incomes and prevent additional affordable units from coming online. Our patchwork system for preserving and expanding the affordable rental housing supply is inefficient. Improving it will take more capital and accelerated production facilitated by reforming policies and practices. We offer recommendations to improve the effective use of capital, to expand capacity (including supporting mission-driven owners), and to streamline and coordinate activity across government agencies and stakeholders. We also suggest ways to build trust among market actors to improve how the entire system functions.

Read the Full Article Here

  • April 20, 2021
  • 4:00 pm
  • Registration Closed

    DC Green Bank CEO, Eli Hopson, joined the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development’s (DMPED) Weekly Recovery Check-In LIVE on Tuesday April 20 to talk about our role in supporting the District to meet climate, energy, and sustainability goals, as well as how we can help to finance a green recovery for all DC.

    Other speakers included:

    – Tommy Wells, Director, Department of Energy & Environment (DOEE)

    – Gilbert Campbell, Co-Founder and CEO, Volt Energy

    – Ted Trabue, Managing Director, District of Columbia Sustainable Energy Utility (DCSEU)

    – Lamont Akins, Senior Manager, Strategic Initiatives and External Engagement, Pepco Holdings

    DMPED Recovery Check-In Townhall

    CEO Eli Hopson talks about DC Green Bank's role in a green recovery for the District

    On April 21, DC Green Bank General Counsel Sandy Paik joined the In-House Influence podcast to talk about her role with DCGB and how she came to be who she is today.

    In-House Influence “features interviews on the ‘how’ behind each guest’s path toward leadership – with a focus on their youth during the ages of 7-17. Each podcast, divided into 10-minute sections, highlights four different trailblazers in the legal community from various industries, including government contractors, health care, real estate, technology, and financial services. Guests reflect on hardships, mentorship and early life decisions that helped mold them into the leaders they are today.”

    Jay Lurie, DC Green Bank’s Chief Investment Officer, recently engaged in a conversation with Global Finance Magazine about climate change, finance sector, and DC Green Bank’s role in building the Clean Economy.

    Here is an excerpt from the interview, and click below to read the full conversation –

    Global Finance Magazine: What are your target sub-sectors and how do you manage to foster private capital in these areas?

    Lurie: DC Green Bank focuses on solar energy and storage, such as on rooftops and parking canopies; green buildings driven by compliance needs, as they are responsible for the majority of carbon emissions in the District; stormwater resilience; and clean transport, such as electric vehicles. The size of projects depends on the location and context: rooftop solar projects in DC require smaller financing commitments compared to much larger solar or wind projects in rural New York State.

    Green banks may also play a role in financing the expansion of DERs, or distributed energy resources, such as micro-grids, which are designed to reduce the need for large transmission lines. Costs of solar and batteries keep coming down, which accelerates the trend.

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    Read Interview in Global Finance Magazine

  • April 7, 2021
  • 10:00 am EST
  • Virtual
  • Registration Closed

    DC Green Bank Board Member, Priya Jayachandran, participated in a recent webinar hosted by C40 Cities to discuss key operational choices and practices for local green banks. The session covered a range of considerations for both day-to-day operations, and significant strategic landmarks for green banks, but with specific focus on the topics of risk management and the role green banks can play in improving equitable and inclusive climate financing in cities.

    Speakers included:

    Bruce Schlein (moderator), Director, Impact Investing; Resource Efficiency Finance, Citi. Board member of NYCEEC
    Kerry O’Neill, CEO, Inclusive Prosperity Capital, Inc.
    Priya Jayachandran, Board member of DC Green Bank & CEO of National Housing Trust (NHT)
    Kim Erle, Managing Director, Strategy, Impact & Investor Relations, NY Green Bank

    LOCAL GREEN BANKS: OPERATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

    C40 Cities Webinar - Green Banks
  • April 15, 2021
  • 12:00 - 1:00 pm EST
  • Zoom
  • Registration Closed
    Pre-registration is required.

    DC Green Finance Authority (“DC Green Bank”) will conduct a special meeting of the Board of Directors, pursuant to the Open Meetings Act, (DC Official Code §2-574(1)).

    Pre-registration is required.

    April 15 Special Meeting of the DCGB Board of Directors

    Special Meeting
  • April 9, 2021
  • 12:00 - 1:00 pm EST
  • Zoom
  • Registration Closed

    Please join us on Friday, April 9 to discuss DC Green Bank’s engagement with organizations that serve communities across the District and how we can help to deliver financing options to support their leadership on clean energy and energy efficiency. We will discuss our emerging community engagement pilot initiative as we establish a clear pathway for nonprofits, faith-based institutions, and other community-based organizations to access finance for energy efficiency and systems upgrades.

    Community leader speakers included:

    – Pastor Lionel Edmonds, Pastor at Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church
    – Lem Walker, President of the Fairfax Village Community Association

    Diverse Voices in the Clean Economy

    Focus and Feedback Session

    DC Green Bank, a Washington, D.C.-based program that promotes sustainable infrastructure, has launched a loan program that supports energy-saving work within the District.

    The new program, Navigator, provides pre-development loans for community-based nonprofit organization buildings, commercial buildings, and multifamily or mixed-use properties with five or more residential units. The loans cover sustainable energy-saving projects such as bidding work, design, energy audits and benchmarking, engineering environmental-based planning meetings and other design costs.

    “Through our engagement with District residents, contractors, developers, property owners, engineers and beyond, we have identified pre-development loans as a crucial missing piece in the city’s clean energy puzzle,” DC Green Bank CEO Eli Hopson said via a statement.

    View Full Article

     

  • March 18, 2021
  • 12:00 - 1:00 pm EST
  • Zoom
  • Registration Closed
    Attendees must register to participate.

    DC Green Finance Authority (“DC Green Bank”) will conduct a regular meeting of the Board of Directors, pursuant to the Open Meetings Act, (DC Official Code §2-574(1)).

    Pre-registration is required.

    March 18 2021 Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors
  • March 10, 2021
  • 1:00 pm
  • Registration Closed

    Each month DOEE and DCRA host educational events designed to accelerate the implementation of the Clean Energy DC Act and the new building construction codes. The virtual events will be held on the second Wednesday of each month at 1pm.

    In March, the DC Green Bank team joined for a conversation about Funding Clean Energy DC: Innovative Financing Solutions for Building Retrofits.

    The District has taken decisive action to curb greenhouse gas emissions related to building energy use—which accounts for nearly 75% of all citywide GHG emissions—by passing innovative policies like the Building Energy Performance Standards and adopting stringent energy codes. Yet a lot of hard work is still ahead of us. Retrofitting existing buildings to meet the city’s climate vision can generate significant cost savings for building owners and tenants, but it can also represent a considerable investment of time and money. It will be particularly important to ensure all sectors, particularly affordable housing and class B and C buildings, have tools and resources to upgrade their facilities. Accessing new funding, leveraging existing sources, and convincing decision makers (internal and external) to invest in energy efficiency projects all play a critical role. Industry experts discussed new and innovative financing options and highlight examples of successful projects. Speakers included:

    Presentation by Theresa Backhus, Associate Director, Building Innovation Hub
    Presentation by Cullen Kasunic, Head of Finance, BlocPower
    Presentation by Marta Schantz, Senior Vice President, ULI Greenprint Center for Building Performance
    Presentation by Donald Walker, Director of Operations & Shyrah Kum, Equal Access Advocate, DC Green Bank

    Purpose

    The District of Columbia Green Finance Authority (d/b/a/ “DC Green Bank” or “DCGB”) is seeking expressions of interest and qualifications from service providers in the areas set forth in this Request for Qualifications (RFQ).

    Through this RFQ, DC Green Bank invites service providers interested in working with DC Green Bank with a high-level description of our institution and the service providers we anticipate engaging from time to time for the following categories of professional services for inclusion in its Professional Slate:

    • Legal Services.

    This RFQ is one means by which DC Green Bank can identify qualified and interested service providers to include in our Professional Slate. Interested service providers are invited to submit a statement of qualifications as set forth in greater detail below.

    This RFQ will remain open until DC Green Bank completes the development of its initial Professional Slate.  DC Green Bank expects to identify at least one (1) qualified service provider for inclusion in its Professional Slate from among the responses to this RFQ and may also include in its Professional Slate service providers otherwise known to it by reputation, referral, and/or in connection with a previous or existing relationship with DC Green Bank.  DC Green Bank may, from time to time, re-open its Professional Slate on a periodic and on an as needed basis.  Notwithstanding the foregoing, on occasion, it may engage a service provider not included in its Professional Slate on an expedited basis when a particular expertise is needed one or more areas of immediate consequence to DC Green Bank, and such engagements of those potential service providers may be made on a basis deemed most appropriate by DC Green Bank in its sole discretion.

    Discussions with respondents and potential respondents will be conducted on an ongoing basis until the Professional Slate is published to the DC Green Bank website.

    The decision to proceed to engage a particular provider in the Professional Slate will be made on a case-by-case basis by DC Green Bank in its sole discretion and may be pursuant to the terms of a specified engagement or on a retained services engagement basis.  Such engagements will be based on a consideration of all relevant facts and circumstances in connection with a specified need and/or project and is intended to result in the best value to DC Green Bank as determined in its sole discretion in light thereof.  In instances where DC Green Bank has more than one (1) qualified service provider for a category of need in its Professional Slate, among the factors that DC Green Bank will consider for specific and project-level engagements are service provider capacity, delivery timing, team capabilities, specified expertise, history of performance and mission alignment accountability.

    RESPONDENTS PLEASE NOTE: This RFQ does not commit DC Green Bank to select any firm(s), engage, procure or contract for any professional services. DC Green Bank reserves the right, in its sole discretion and in accordance with generally accepted good business practices, to accept or reject any or all submissions received, to negotiate with any or all qualified respondents, to request modifications to engagements in accordance with such negotiations, to request supplemental or clarifying information from respondents, to cancel or amend this RFQ, and/or to modify or supplement its Professional Slate in any manner, in part or in its entirety, at any time.

    View Full RFQ