Why state and local governments should review statutes governing financing of infrastructure projects and add explicit language to include conservation measures

Here at the Environmental Finance Center we work with a lot of data, but all the data in the world is useless if you can’t convey the story of the data to people who need to understand it. In line with … Read more

Every year, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes data on household expenditures, income, and demographics collected through the Consumer Expenditure Survey. This nationally-representative survey reveals, among other things, how much households are spending on electricity, water and … Read more

Guest post by Amanda Sear, Research Assistant, Duke Carbon Offsets Initiative As the temperature starts rising outside, energy bills can trend skyward as well. In the summer and winter, insufficient insulation and poor weatherization can make houses leak cool and … Read more

Bad debt plagues every utility: electric, water, sewer, phone, gas – you name it. A utility can spend thousands of dollars trying to recover the costs of delinquent accounts, and unfortunately, utilities with bad debt meet a costly fate. Bad … Read more

Earlier this week, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) released a technical brief, “Energy Efficiency Program Financing: Where it comes from, where it goes, and how it gets there.” Financing specifically refers to capital that is used to cover project upfront … Read more

Here at the EFC, we are always looking for ways to support the sustainable financing of energy efficiency for communities around the country, including in our home state of North Carolina. In the Old North State, electricity customers are generally … Read more

Back in September, the School of Government’s Community and Economic Development in North Carolina and Beyond blog highlighted a new program from US EPA to work with small businesses nationwide to develop and commercialize technologies that tackle critical environmental problems:  the … Read more

Residential energy efficiency offers a unique way to simultaneously reduce energy use in buildings, lower energy bills for consumers, improve the comfort of homes, and generate carbon offsets. However, many homeowners who could benefit from energy efficiency retrofits are unable … Read more

As the Assistant Program Manager at the UNC Environmental Finance Center (EFC), I work ‘behind the scenes’ on internal projects related to the every day management of our center. In my role facilitating organizational development at the EFC, I recently … Read more