The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this month awarded the University of Maryland’s Environmental Finance Center with a six-year grant, which will help the center fund its environmental initiatives in the region.
The center is an important resource for many communities in the Mid-Atlantic region, and the EPA selected it for the grant because it scored the highest on certain criteria, EPA spokeswoman Bonnie Smith said.
“What they needed to do is provide local governments with finance-related training, technical assistance, finance studies and analytical support to be able to help communities meet their environmental goals and understand how to face issues that go with meeting those goals,” Smith said. “They need to educate these local governments on lowering costs, increasing investments and improving financial capacity.”
The award will allow the center to work with the private sector and local governments to finance environmental projects and help it become sustainable both environmentally and economically, said Dan Nees, a senior research associate at the center.
READ MORE: Maryland ranks No. 12 among 30 states in solar capacity per person
“With this new award coming in, we will be the place to go to for any environmental finance assistance in the entire region, easily, because of the amount how we leverage it,” said Joanne Throwe, the center’s director. “This will allow us to grow and bring on new partners and do such great local government work, and engaging the university in the process is going to be very useful.”
The center, which has been at the university for 21 years, aims to help communities across the Mid-Atlantic pay for environmental programs and initiatives, he said. It covers Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Washington, D.C., and is one of 10 similar centers across the country.
“We have probably the most diverse and the largest [center],” Throwe said. “Largest in terms of funding and diverse in terms of the projects we do.”
The center now focuses on sustainability, addressing topics such as climate change, water management, energy and agriculture, Throwe said. Its Municipal Online Stormwater Training Center aims to help communities manage stormwater and improve the Chesapeake Bay’s water quality, while its Maryland Smart Energy Communities Program promotes energy efficiency in cities and counties.
“We’re also expanding to get communities ready to become a resilient community, so instead of anticipating what needs to be done after a disaster, we’re helping communities plan prior to a disaster and looking at economic opportunities for being resilient,” Throwe said.
READ MORE: UMD students rally for climate change as Pope calls for action
The university’s business, engineering and public policy schools are also involved in the center’s programs. The business school, for instance, works with the center on the Chesapeake Trust Fund Financing Task Force, which is intended to explore public-private financing for protecting and restoring the Chesapeake Bay.
The center will apply the grant funds to its various programs, with the greatest amount going toward its stormwater financing project, Nees said. This will also allow it to help communities on a broader scale and engage with multiple states.
“EPA is committed to working closely with communities to help them meet the environmental goals that they have,” Smith said. “Those goals will benefit public health and those goals will also help local economies, and the environmental finance center at the University of Maryland plays an important role in that.”
This year’s grant budget is not yet determined, as the center is currently negotiating with the EPA, but staff are hoping for $1.8 million, Throwe said.
CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this story stated the EPA awarded the Environmental Finance Center a $46 million grant. The amount has not yet been determined. The article has been updated.
