The Connecticut Green Bank is pleased to announce that two of its flagship financing offerings for homes and commercial buildings are expanding to include projects related to climate adaptation, resiliency, and water infrastructure. These additions allow home- and building-owners to protect their properties against extreme weather events and potential losses from climate change. The new measures added to the Smart-E and C-PACE programs are among the first steps forward in the Green Bank's environmental infrastructure scope expansion, which applies the green bank model of leveraging public capital to attract multiples of private investment.
"As we move into hurricane season, we are officially launching the new financing capabilities of Smart-E and C-PACE. Both programs have been serving the market for over a decade, successfully helping homeowners and businesses improve their energy efficiency and reduce energy burdens," said Bryan Garcia, President and CEO of the Connecticut Green Bank. "Now, thanks to the Governor's leadership and the support of the legislature, we can mobilize private investment in environmental infrastructure and resiliency."
For homeowners, the Smart-E loan can offer financing for more than 50 upgrades including insulation, windows, HVAC, solar, geothermal, and battery storage. The new resiliency-focused measures are focused on storm protection (such as high impact glass windows and storm shutters), flood proofing (including installing French drains, replacing impervious surfaces, elevating or relocated plumbing or HVAC equipment, and basement flood proofing), drinking water quality (replacing lead pipes; overdrilling, redrilling, relocating, or improving a well; connecting to public water; and repairing leaks), and planting of native or shade trees or removal of dead trees.
For non-residential properties, the C-PACE program will allow financing for projects that address the challenges caused by climate change that can have negative effects on buildings and properties. Reinforcing structures through resilient building practices can help businesses stay open and operational. Improvements related to flood management, storm events, wind, fire, sea level rise, and extreme heat can qualify. Also, projects that embrace nature-based solutions including natural infrastructure that promote stormwater management, healthy vegetation, soils, and aquatic ecosystems that offer flood control and hazard risk reduction can be financed. Projects designed to FORTIFIED, a standard created by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) can also access C-PACE financing.
"As the administrator of C-PACE in Connecticut, we are excited to expand the capacity of this successful program which has surpassed 400 closed projects and nearly $300 million in investment. The expansion creates new opportunities for both property owners to make improvements, and our capital provider partners who are currently able to offer this effective financing mechanism to address resilience projects," said Mackey Dykes, Vice President of Financing Programs at the Green Bank.
By statutory definition, resilience means the ability to prepare for and adapt to changing conditions and withstand and recover rapidly from deliberate attacks, accidents or naturally occurring threats or incidents, including, but not limited to, the impacts of climate change.
The Green Bank is also a co-administrator of the Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA) program Energy Storage Solutions, which provides upfront and performance-based incentives designed to make the installation of battery energy storage systems more affordable for homeowners and businesses. When combined with solar photovoltaic systems, batteries can provide resilience when grid outages occur.
For a list of participating C-PACE capital providers, please visit https://www.ctgreenbank.com/building-solutions/c-pace/find-a-capital-provider/.
To learn more about Green Bank climate resilience offerings, please visit https://www.ctgreenbank.com/resilience-climate-adaptation-offerings/.
About the Connecticut Green Bank
The Connecticut Green Bank was established by the Connecticut General Assembly in 2011 as the nation's first state-level green bank and has since supported the creation of more than 27,000 green jobs in the state, while reducing the energy cost burden on over 69,000 families, businesses, and nonprofits. The Green Bank's vision is a planet protected by the love of humanity and its mission is to confront climate change by increasing and accelerating investment into Connecticut's green economy to create more resilient, healthier, and equitable communities. This is accomplished by leveraging limited public resources to scale-up and mobilize private capital investment into Connecticut. In 2017, the Connecticut Green Bank received the Innovations in American Government Award from the Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation for their "Sparking the Green Bank Movement" entry. To date, the Green Bank has mobilized nearly $2.5 billion into the State's green economy. This has reduced the energy costs for thousands of families and businesses, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change and worsen public health.
Learn more at www.ctgreenbank.com.
For More Information, Contact:
Rudy Sturk (rudy.sturk@ctgreenbank.com)
