I’ve had hundreds of conversations this year that started like someone consoling a little leaguer after a tough loss. And honestly, I get it. People feel like the momentum around climate has evaporated. Like the work has gone into hiding. The federal spigots are closing. Words like “climate” and “equity” are being scrubbed from websites. The mood has shifted from optimism to caution to something that looks a lot like despair. But here’s the thing: climate’s not dead. Not even close. 

Climate and resilience project developers must be open to engaging non-traditional partners and tools to bring outcomes-aligned financing and funding to fruition. QV's work with multi-sector partners in and around Sentinel Landscapes highlights the potential of this approach to enhance conservation and climate resilience at scale.

QV, the Coalition for Green Capital, and PRE Collective, with $1.3 million in financial support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will work with six green banks in a cohort model to provide expertise and capacity building support that prepares these institutions to strategically deploy GGRF funding to clean water infrastructure projects in under-resourced communities.

In this blog, we shine a spotlight on the challenges faced by manufactured home communities (MHC) and and recommend 5 actions we should take to improve the quality of life for the MHC residents of today and tomorrow. 

We recommend two key actions for the U.S. EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to realize its full potential to reduce emissions, mobilize private capital, and address historic environmental inequalities.
1. Broaden GGRF Scope to Enable Financing of Nature-Based Projects
2. Capitalize a National Green Bank and Empower it to Leverage the Full Array of Funding Opportunities

People are healthier when they have access to clean water and natural infrastructure amenities. Identifying the population health benefits of public infrastructure projects opens the door to more public-private partnerships – offering private actors an opportunity to finance solutions that close budget gaps for public infrastructure AND drive measurable environmental and health improvements. 

We need locally-driven solutions, public-private collaboration, and innovative financing to address the water crisis in the Western United States. We outline our work with several partners in the West and Southwest U.S. to do just that - including our efforts with the Edwards Aquifer Authority in Texas to create a new type of cost-effective, flexible groundwater easement for the aquifer.

EDF and Quantified Ventures recently published a report that identified 5 replicable repayment streams that communities and conservation groups can use to access SRF financing for natural infrastructure such as wetlands, floodplain restoration, and riparian buffers. This blog highlights 3 key takeaways to advance natural infrastructure through SRFs we found after speaking with conservation finance experts and SRF leaders about our report.

The $55 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for water infrastructure presents an opportunity to demonstrate that these investments truly make human lives better. We recommend a a 5-step approach to effectively deploy BIL funds to communities that need it most and to demonstrate 3 basic outcomes: improved health; community resilience, and affordability.

Public policy innovation is one of the major enablers of more systemic change. To that end, we were thrilled to see Maryland Governor Larry Hogan sign the Conservation Finance Act into law on April 21, 2022.

In the last 5 years, it's reported that only 3% of CWSRF funds have been invested into natural and green stormwater infrastructure. As our communities continue to face mounting issues of climate change, aging water infrastructure, and health risks, it is imperative that we utilize these funds more effectively.

Water quality remains a persistent public health and environmental challenge in the United States despite decades of efforts to deliver clean water for drinking and recreational activities. We worked with the Environmental Policy Innovation Center to publish papers that make recommendations related to lead pipe replacement and the watershed approach to water quality.