Blog
Current Blog Posts
Rates Flood: Rising Water Bills
Guest author Peiffer Brandt is the Chief Operating Officer at Raftelis Financial Consultants. An 82% rate increase. That’s what the Milford (MA) Water Company has proposed to cover the costs of a new $25 million…
Potential Savings through Managing Energy Costs at the Water Utility
Stacey Isaac Berahzer is a Senior Project Director for the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina, and works from a satellite office in Georgia. In teaching environmental finance we develop many charts…
Survey Says: Some in NC Using Green Financial Incentives, Elsewhere Regulations
Dayne Batten is a Research Assistant for the EFC and second year MPA student at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Government. Alternative energy facilities, green site design features, and green building techniques (such as those required…
Rate Structures Don’t Kill Budgets, Inaccurate Projections Do
Jeff Hughes is the Director of the Environmental Finance Center. I’ve come to the opinion that rate structures, particularly those that are designed to promote conservation and water efficiency, may be getting a bad rap…
Three States, Three Different Statutory Frameworks for PACE Programs
Matt Harris is the Marketing and Outreach Coordinator for the Environmental Finance Center. Adam Parker and Jeff Hughes wrote the paper referenced below, which is available on the Environmental Finance Center website at: http://efc.unc.edu/publications.html#PACE While…
Using an Index to Help Project Capital Costs Into the Future
Update: This blog post and the graph were updated on February 10, 2021 to reflect more recent price index estimates and trends. Sitting at your desk very late in the afternoon, your coffee going cold,…
The slow march forward of utilities embracing rainwater harvesting as an alternative water supply
Christine E. Boyle, PhD is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Environmental Finance Center. Dr. Boyle investigates new models for sustainable local water and energy provision. Despite mounting evidence that rainwater harvesting systems present a cost-effective option for…
Hidden Residential Irrigation in NC
Mary Tiger is the Chief Operating Officer for the Environmental Finance Center at UNC. Over the past four years, the Environmental Finance Center (EFC) conducted in-depth analysis of residential customers of some of North Carolina’s…