News from the
Center for Environmental Finance
Advancing sustainable finance and technology solutions
svEPA
Office of the Chief
Financial Officer
July 2012
Volume 3, Issue 3
EPA Hosts Technology Market Summit
On May 14, 2012, EPA convened its first Technology
Market Summit at American University in Washington,
DC. Co-sponsored by EPA and American University,
with participation and support from Duke University's
Nicholas Institute, the event set in motion a dialogue
with a diverse group of participants on how government,
academia, and the private sector can accelerate
technology innovation and deployment to produce a
more sustainable environment, create jobs, and grow
the economy.
Invitees from government, industry, academia, the
investment community, and technology innovators
heard from EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, Secretary
of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Commerce,
John Bryson, and the U.S. Trade Representative,
Ron Kirk. The Cabinet officials highlighted the
importance of environmental technologies in
improving environmental protection and decreasing
human health risks. They noted how, at the same time,
these technologies spur jobs, trade, and private sector
business opportunities.
In the morning, attendees joined one of three in-depth
case study topics on environmental technologies:
fenceline air quality monitoring, automotive supply
chain, and biodigesters and biogas. After these
concurrent sessions, Deutsche Bank managing
director Mark Fulton spoke to participants about how
transparency, longevity, and certainty in public policy
can drive technology investment. Later in the day, a
panel of corporate and nonprofit leaders gave personal
perspectives on solutions to environmental technology
and finance challenges.
The Summit's success and the momentum generated
by the event will help to frame EPA's continued work
toward engaging the private sector in advancing
technology that supports environmental protection,
jobs, and the economy.
From left to right: EPA Chief Financial Officer Barbara Bennett,
American University President Neil Kerwin, EPA Administrator Lisa P.
Jackson, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, EPADeputy Administrator
Bob Perciasepe, Secretary of Commerce John Bryson, U.S. Trade
Representative Ron Kirk.
For more information on the Technology Market Summit, please visit http://www.epa.gov/envirofinance/2012summit.html to access
presentation materials and videos. For more information on EPA's Roadmap, Technology Innovation for Environmental and Economic
Progress, please visit http://www.epa.gov/envirofinance/innovation.html.
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Highlights of the May 2012 Environmental Financial
Advisory Board Meeting
The Environmental Financial Advisory Board (EFAB)
held its most recent meeting May 22-24, 2012 in
Alexandria, Virginia. The meeting provided the board
members the opportunity to hear from a distinguished
group of EPA officials and to discuss, in some detail,
the status of the ongoing work of the board's six project
workgroups.
Among a group of excellent speakers, one clear
highlight was the presentation made by Ms. Shalini
Vajjhala, Special Representative from EPAs Office of
the Administrator. Ms. Vajjhala spoke on the topic of
the U.S.-Brazil Joint Initiative on Urban Sustainability.
This partnership reflects the infrastructure and
Sustainability priorities of both U.S. President Barack
Obama and Brazilian President Dilma Rouseseff A core
aspect of the initiative is the partnership between the
cities of Rio de Janeiro and Philadelphia. The purpose
of the joint initiative is to serve as a bridge to aggregate
needed environmental infrastructure projects and
create investment portfolios. Partnership participants
are developing case studies of selected project profiles
and finance mechanisms that can be shared to promote
best practices and flag opportunities. The case studies
are included on a portal site, which was announced
as a tool at the Rio+20 conference. The portal is an
interactive, online entry point for communities, local
officials, developers and investors to help them work
together toward investment in urban Sustainability in
cities around the world. It is hoped that the initiative
will create a template for innovative ideas that can
be applied in other countries, and that the portal will
continue to grow.
Another highlight of the meeting was the presentation
of the Tribal Environmental Programs Workgroup. The
workgroup presented the board with a proposed position
statement on making tax-exempt bonds available to
the Tribes to finance municipal projects on the same
basis as available to state and local governments. The
workgroup noted that the Department of Treasury
supports this position and recommended the EPA
follow suit. Members engaged in a spirited discussion
of the position statement language and discussed
the possibility of changes. The workgroup and staff
are revising the statement based on the full Board
recommendations. A final position statement will go
back to the board for approval later this summer.
The Environmental Financial Advisory Board is an independent advisory committee that gives advice to EPA's Administrator on financing
environmental protection activities and increasing investment in environmental infrastructure. For additional information on the Board,
visit http://www.epa.gov/envirofinance/efab.html. For more information on the Joint Initiative on Urban Sustainability, please visit
http://www. epa.gov/jius/.
Financial Tool Spotlight: Water for People
Water for People, an international nonprofit development
organization established in 1991, assists people in
developing countries by supporting the improvement
and expansion of locally sustainable drinking water
sources, sanitation facilities, and hygiene education
programs. Water for People partners with non-
governmental organizations and communities around
the world and has provided more than 98,000 people
with safe drinking water sources and/or improved
sanitation facilities. Water for people now operates in
ten countries around the world - Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador,
Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, West Bengal in India,
Uganda, Rwanda, and Malawi.
For more information on support for international environmental finance projects, please visit http://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.
cgi?Dockey=Pl OOB9IY.txt.
Center for Environmental Finance Newsletter • July 2012 • EPA-190-N-12-003
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Environmental Finance Center at University of North
Carolina-Chapel Hill Expands Project Work
EPA's Environmental Finance Center (EFC) Grant
Program supports a network of ten university-based
centers located across the nation. These EFCs provide
multi-media finance expertise and outreach to states,
tribes, local governments, and the private sector to
help them meet environmental requirements. Services
include finance-related information, education, training,
technical assistance, and other analytic support.
The EFCs educate stakeholders on lowering costs,
increasing investment, improving financial capacity,
achieving sustainability, and identifying and evaluating
options for environmental services and programs.
The EPA-funded work that the EFCs have performed
over the last ten years is impressive and extensive;
so successful have the EFC services been that other
entities now support and benefit from the centers'
specific environmental finance expertise. Located in
the School of Government, the EFC at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) is one EFC
that has effectively leveraged available resources
by obtaining project support from a wide variety
of other governments, nonprofit organizations, and
private sector sources. Some of the more prominent
sources include the U.S. Department of Energy, the
Appalachian Regional Commission, the North Carolina
Department of Environment and Natural Resources,
the North Carolina State Energy Office, the Georgia
Environmental Finance Authority, the North Carolina
Urban Water Consortium, the North Carolina Rural
Economic Development Center, the Water Research
Foundation, and Aqua North Carolina, a division of
Aqua, Inc.
Highlights are:
Department of Energy Project: The UNC EFC
joined a national team funded by the Department of
Energy (DOE) to focus on financing strategies for
energy efficiency, renewable energy generation, other
distributed generation, and energy asset management
projects, particularly for state and local recipients of
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
funding. The team members act as consultants and
de facto investment counsels for states and local
governments, provide field training on financing issues,
and develop presentation and written materials that are
added to DOE's Energy Solutions Center website.
Appalachian Regional Commission Work: The
Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) contracted
with the UNC EFC to conduct a water and wastewater
needs and funding gap assessment in the 410-county
Appalachian Region running through thirteen states
from Alabama to New York. In its project work,
the UNC EFC created a baseline financial database,
assessed the state of existing resources available for
water and sewer infrastructure needs, consulted with
local officials to identify major infrastructure finance
challenges, inventoried current policies and best
practices, facilitated peer to peer information exchanges,
and prepared infrastructure finance case studies.
North Carolina and Georgia Water and Wastewater
Rates and Rate Structures: Every year the UNC
EFC, in partnership with the North Carolina League
of Municipalities, collects information on water and
wastewater rate schedules from hundreds of local
governments and not-for-profit utilities across North
Carolina. In Georgia, the UNC EFC and the Georgia
Environmental Finance Authority have collected and
analyzed water and wastewater rate structures from
almost 90 percent of service providers in the state.
The rate information from both states is integrated
into readily usable formats, analyzed, and provided
to the appropriate elected officials and staff to help
them make decisions related to water and wastewater
services during budget preparations.
For more information on the Environmental Finance Centers, visit http://www.epa.gov/envirofinance/efcn.html.
Center for Environmental Finance Newsletter • July 2012 • EPA-190-N-12-003
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