2023 - Present

EFC is designing and delivering broad-reaching education and training opportunities to increase awareness and implementation of the Climate Solutions Now Act (CSNA) via deployment of federal funds to leverage clean energy projects and investments. The initiative includes webinars, leadership trainings, and technical assistance focused on key climate topics such as building electrification, renewable energy, and electric vehicle transition.

EFC worked with a team led by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and American Rivers to accelerate the implementation of green infrastructure in Pennsylvania’s Juniata watershed.  As a part of this effort, the EFC worked with more than a dozen MS4 communities in Blair County to develop a stormwater financing strategy that looks to improve efficiencies and reduce costs through a regional approach.PartnersAlliance for the Chesapeake Bay, American Rivers, Blair County Conservation District, and Blair County MS4 WorkgroupSponsors

2023 (April)

The purpose of this project was to develop a preliminary revenueshed analysis to frame potential avenues to fund or finance projects that address excess phosphorus in Broadford Lake, located in Garrett County, Maryland. Revenuesheds, conceptualized by the University of North Carolina Environmental Finance Center (UNC EFC), seek to identify the full range of stakeholders that benefit from a healthy watershed. This approach expands the potential opportunities to implement projects that improve water quality.

2015 (July)

The EFC worked collaboratively with Berkeley County, West Virginia, to conduct a stormwater financing feasibility study. Berkeley County lies in the Potomac River watershed and, at the time of this study, was the only county in West Virginia to hold a stormwater MS4 permit.

The Town of Slaughter Beach is working to build economic resilience by valuing natural resources, exploring ecotourism, and promoting economic opportunity in the Mispillion River and Cedar Creek watersheds.  

The Town of Emmitsburg is currently mid-way through its first MS4 Permit cycle (10/31/18 - 10/30/23). To date, most of the Town’s effort has been focused on meeting the MCM requirements, leaving the more costly impervious restoration requirements for the later portion of the permit cycle. Additionally, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) has informed the Town that there are certain activities that will need to be increased (such as the frequency of street sweeping) for the next permit cycle.

2022 (March)

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.

2021 - 2024

In partnership with The Nature Conservancy and George Mason University, the Environmental Finance Center (EFC) worked to provide rural communities with the tools and data necessary to make financially and socially responsible decisions for adapting to climate-induced flooding from sea level rise, storms, and precipitation.  

States in the Chesapeake Bay watershed are implementing strategies to restore the health of the Bay and the region’s creeks, streams, and rivers.  These activities are being implemented in accordance with the US EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load, which identifies necessary pollution reductions from major sources of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment to meet water quality standards in the bay.  Through the “Financing Strategies” project, EFC seeks to support bay states in their pollution

Photo Credit: Eric Reed A universally accepted accounting framework to holistically measure the benefits and costs of urban and community forest resources does not exist.  EFC partnered with organizations versed in carbon trading, financing mechanisms, research, and urban forest management to develop a standardized, replicable, and transparent accounting system that can assess return on urban tree canopy investments for private, nonprofit, and public investors.