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Current Blog Posts
NC Clean Tech Summit: Spotlighting a Growing Collaboration Between the Clean Tech Industry and Universities
This guest post was written by Steve Wall, Research Associate/Project Director of the Environmental Resource Program at the UNC Institute of the Environment. On February 19th and 20th leaders in the clean technology sector will gather in…
Where to Find Data for Smart Managerial and Financial Decisions
Ever need to know how many single-family wood-framed houses were sold in the Midwest last year? Or the latitude and longitude of every farmers market in Wisconsin that sells herbs, flowers, and soap? What about…
What Does Santa Claus Charge for Water and Wastewater Service?
The call came in on a December morning several years ago. When I saw that the caller ID said “Santa Claus” I decided not to answer the phone. My thought was “seriously, what will these…
Breaking News: MS4 uses P3 for TMDL!
Just in case you aren’t up on your stormwater finance acronyms, the long version of today’s blog post is A Municipal Separate Stormwater System (MS4) uses a Public Private Partnership (P3) to address a Total…
Thanksgiving amidst Affordability Challenges for Environmental Services
This week of Thanksgiving, we at the Environmental Finance Center (EFC) are grateful for many things, including work in an interesting field and the opportunity to assist communities with the challenges of sustainable environmental finance….
Simple. Easy. Smart: Building a Better Energy Efficiency Finance Program
It’s the environmental equivalent of the chicken and egg conundrum. Which comes first? The energy efficiency retrofit (the plump chicken full of opportunity) or the capital (the very large egg) with which to fund it? The…
In it for the long-haul: Water rate approvals from real communication with boards
The Environmental Finance Center has partnered with Arcadis, Raftelis Financial Consultants, ICMA, and Stratus Consulting to get to the bottom of what meaningful communication between water utilities and their governing boards regarding rates and finances…
Striking the Balance: How Communities are Using Creative Financing to Support Green Infrastructure
My interest in Green Infrastructure (GI) sparked several years ago, when I worked as a college intern with the City of Greensboro, NC Stormwater Department. Back then, no one really talked about “green infrastructure”, but…