For more than three decades, the Environmental Finance Center has helped hundreds of local, state, and federal partners throughout the Mid-Atlantic region advance policies, programs, and financing strategies that achieve outcomes for people, places, and the environment. See EFC’s featured work below.
EFC's Featured Work
Region 3 WaterTA Program
The Region 3 WaterTA program offers direct support to municipalities, tribes, and water utilities in US EPA Region 3 to help them access federal and state funding to address water infrastructure needs.
Maryland Local Government Climate Action Support Program
EFC is coordinating with the Maryland Department of Environment to help build the local capacity of Maryland communities to plan, fund, and implement climate projects and community-based climate-related outreach campaigns.
Mid-Atlantic Sustainable Breweries
The Mid-Atlantic Sustainable Breweries Program offers free sustainability consultations to help craft brewers assess operations and implement practices related to energy, water, wastewater, air emissions, and cleaning and sanitizing – all while saving costs and improving brand recognition.
Rainwater Harvesting for Urban Farms
EFC is coordinating with UMD's School of Public Health, Extension, and USDA Agricultural Research Services to help urban farmers harvest and filter rainwater to nourish their crops and create more sustainable farms and resilient communities.
EFC Projects and Publications
See EFC’s work in action by browsing our current and archived (completed) projects below.
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2009 - PresentClimate Action Planning and Greenhouse Gas Inventories
EFC provides technical support in developing greenhouse gas inventories and climate action planning to University of Maryland System institutions. Previous and current work includes the University of Maryland Global Campus, University of Maryland Baltimore County, University of Maryland College Park, The Universities at Shady Grove, and Towson University. EFC helps calculate campus carbon emissions, assists in developing carbon reduction strategies, and develops basic cost calculations for prioritizing strategies.View Project Details for Climate Action Planning and Greenhouse Gas Inventories -
2025 (June)Delaware Tree and Climate Workshop
EFC partnered with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) Division of Climate, Coastal, and Energy to plan and facilitate the Delaware Tree and Climate Workshop. This event convened partners from across the state to forge alignment around Delaware’s interrelated priorities related to forestry, urban trees, natural and working lands, and climate resilience. View Project Details for Delaware Tree and Climate Workshop -
2024 (November)Landscape Architecture: Maximizing the Economic Benefits of Nature-based Solutions Through Design
The University of Maryland Environmental Finance Center developed a brief to help translate the benefit values (monetary) of landscape architects’ work on nature-based solutions. The brief offers an overview of nature-based economic benefits in five key areas: health and livability, expanded investment and sustainable jobs, increased biodiversity, carbon sequestration and improved resilience. A supplementary analysis offers lessons from 175 case studies in the U.S. Five key takeaways from the EFC brief include: View Project Details for Landscape Architecture: Maximizing the Economic Benefits of Nature-based Solutions Through Design -
2024Economic Benefits of Nature Based Solutions and Landscape Architecture
The American Society of Landscape Architecture (ASLA) believes that landscape architects maximize the benefits of nature-based solutions through design. Nature-based solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss are more than mangroves, forests, and grasslands. Using landscape architecture strategies, they can be woven into places where people live. They take the form of parks, recreation areas, streets, coastal infrastructure, and more. Through inclusive design, they can provide even greater benefits to people and support the healthy urban ecosystems people rely on.View Project Details for Economic Benefits of Nature Based Solutions and Landscape Architecture -
2023 - PresentEquitable Landscaping - Green Infrastructure Training for Latino Landscape Professionals
The Equitable Landscaping project focuses on providing culturally appropriate, Spanish-language training on stormwater runoff and green infrastructure skills to first-generation, Spanish-speaking Latino landscapers in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. This project aims to address the lack of specialized training certificates available for Latino landscapers in the region, empowering these underrepresented and under-resourced professionals to gain knowledge and skills crucial to sustainable landscaping.View Project Details for Equitable Landscaping - Green Infrastructure Training for Latino Landscape Professionals -
2023 - PresentSmart Salting: Enhanced Winter Maintenance
The Smart Salting: Enhanced Winter Maintenance training addresses salt pollution on parking lots, driveways, and sidewalks. This voluntary, statewide road salt certification program is targeted to private applicators and aims to balance the safety and mobility of people during winter weather months with improving application practices to reduce contamination to local streams, wells, and drinking water reservoirs and prevent damage to infrastructure, the environment, and potentially human health.View Project Details for Smart Salting: Enhanced Winter Maintenance