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
2024 Annual Report
The Environmental Finance Center worked with communities big and small, rural and urban, red and blue throughout the Mid-Atlantic to advance locally identified environmental priorities.
Mid-Atlantic Sustainable Breweries
UMD EFC’s 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.
Designing a Resilience Action Plan for Maryland’s Coastal Communities
As Maryland’s coastal communities face increasing climate threats, including rising sea levels and severe storms, this initiative aims to strengthen the resilience of eight vulnerable coastal jurisdictions.
Building Climate Resilience in Prince George's County, MD
The Climate Wise Academy aims to strengthen climate resilience in Prince George’s County, Maryland. This program supports local climate preparedness through training and capacity building for Green Teams and community members. The project will enhance local climate resilience by developing a comprehensive climate-specific training curriculum and toolkit.
EFC Projects and Publications
See EFC’s work in action by browsing our current and archived (completed) projects below.
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2022 - 2024Chesapeake Bay Watershed Tree Canopy Funding and Policy Roundtable
In March 2023, 125 local and state leaders from across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed gathered at the two-day, virtual Chesapeake Bay Watershed Tree Canopy Funding and Policy Roundtable to discuss challenges and opportunities in advancing tree canopy goals. Centered around the themes of equity, climate resilience, and tree loss, this event featured expert presentations as well as facilitated discussions with the aim of helping local and state leaders identify funding, policy, and programmatic solutions to achieve state and regional tree goals.View Project Details for Chesapeake Bay Watershed Tree Canopy Funding and Policy Roundtable -
2022 - 2023Affordability of Water Systems
The University of Maryland EFC and the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina partnered to evaluate household and community affordability metrics for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) memos “Financial Capability Assessment Framework for Municipal Clean Water Act Requirements” and “Developing a New Framework for Household Affordability and Financial Capability Assessment in the Water Sector.” The team used a variety of metrics to assess appropriate measurements for affordability determinations for water services.View Project Details for Affordability of Water Systems -
2022 (March)The Economic Benefits of Parks in New York City
Parks are vital infrastructure for healthy, flourishing communities, and are essential to improving the quality of life for city residents. In this report, Trust for Public Land (TPL) quantified the benefits of the network of city, state, and federal parks in New York City (NYC). NYC has an extensive park system that residents visit 527 million times per year, with 99 percent of residents living within a 10-minute walk to a park.1 Parks in NYC create billions of dollars of benefits and savings every year to residents, businesses, and visitors in all five boroughs.View Project Details for The Economic Benefits of Parks in New York City -
2022 (January)Ready for Resilience: Embedding Climate Action into Local Government Operations
The University of Maryland Environmental Finance Center (EFC) developed this guide with support from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to help local governments assess and improve their capacity for increasing climate change resilience. The guide provides an approach for developing a baseline of local government operations as it relates to climate change, integrating climate change into local daily decision making, and enhancing the core functions of local government to better enable the implementation of climate action strategies.View Project Details for Ready for Resilience: Embedding Climate Action into Local Government Operations -
2022 (February)Mispillion and Cedar Creek Natural Resource Evaluation and Management Plan
The Mispillion River and Cedar Creeks drain to the Delaware Bay in Kent and Sussex County Delaware. The vast marshes connecting them are part of an international flyway for migrating birds and a horseshoe crab sanctuary, which brings tourist dollars to the area and secures land value for residents. In addition, the marshes act as a “coastal stronghold” for managing the effects of sea level rise, including reducing property damage from flooding. Together, these resources produce multiple benefits to the state of Delaware, and the towns of Milford and Slaughter Beach.View Project Details for Mispillion and Cedar Creek Natural Resource Evaluation and Management Plan -
2022Economic Benefits of Parks and Open Space in New York City
Valuation of an area’s natural resources helps build knowledge and awareness of the importance of the services and benefits nature provides to humans. Parks and green space in urban areas, in particular, provide aesthetic, recreation, and health benefits which are vital to residents’ well-being. Despite these well-known advantages, cities still experience challenges with funding public parks. Benefit valuation is one way to communicate to decision-makers the importance of continued public funding in natural infrastructure.View Project Details for Economic Benefits of Parks and Open Space in New York City