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In November 2022, our team was selected to support the Carbon Management Collegiate Prize Competition.  The goal of the Carbon Management Collegiate prize is to propose innovative and creative business models for transporting carbon dioxide across a regional network. To this end, collegiate students will be tasked with proposing a regional carbon transport network, defining its business model, and optimizing the transport network across several parameters and with consideration to regional stakeholders, challenges, and cost variability. Teams must be comprised of 3 or more undergraduate or graduate students and represent more than one major with a preference towards majors or specializations in business, supply chain, geosciences, engineering, GIS, land management, law, computer science, and/or public policy.  Teams are eligible to win from a Prize Pool of $25,000.00.

Over the course of the competition, the NHSSF Team will collaborate with other Power Connectors to provide information, support, and other information to support teams to compete.  The NHSSF Team will collaborate with another Power Connector to deliver informational webinars to students on January 25^th at 7pm and February 2^nd at 7pm, EST.  As Power Connectors, the NHSSF Team is focusing its outreach on minority-serving institutions, and the HBCU community of faculty and students, to encourage, identify, and develop students to participate in the competition.  The NHSSF Team wants to adequately engage HBCU students to increase participation in the competition.  As a result, we have scheduled two additional information sessions as described below, with the goal of increasing awareness and ultimately participation in the competition.

• Faculty Focus Information Session – January 12^th@ 4pm

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82232587042?pwd=MzV1bmp6Ri9IblZOQXUxSnMyd2sxdz09
Meeting ID: 822 3258 7042
Passcode: 947347

• Student Focus Information Session – January 19^th@ 5pm

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87004624048?pwd=UnBvRXdxUTF1Ym5iUWo3eS9ONlVqUT09
Meeting ID: 870 0462 4048
Passcode: 254211

During the Information Session, the NHSSF Power Connector Team will give an overview of the competition, who can apply, what to submit, and how entries will be judged. The discussion will also include a path to developing student teams from a particular institution, from multiple HBCUs, and non-HBCU campuses.

Please share the meeting links above with your colleagues and students.

If you have questions, please contact us at natashac@nhssf.org.

By Roland Kamara | Associate, Member Relations, OFN

From Appalachian coal country to the Mississippi Delta, 24 CDFIs will receive grants to bring climate-smart financial products to their communities

Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) have tremendous capacity to address the energy and environmental challenges facing economically distressed communities.

Low-income communities are often those that are also most impacted by our changing climate. These are the same markets served by CDFIs: flood prone areas like New Orleans 9th ward, manufactured housing communities impacted by extreme heat in the Southwest, farmworkers and rural communities displaced by wildfires in California, coastal communities of color in Florida and along the Gulf Coast — all communities served by mission lenders working to address the impacts of climate change.

On December 7, Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) announced the latest recipients of the Renewable and Energy Efficiency Financing Grant. Twenty-four member CDFIs will receive awards of $50,000 to $200,000, for a total of $2.9 million. The funding provides lending capital or loan loss reserves for renewable and energy-efficiency financing programs.

Among the awardees is a project in Northern Kentucky that will provide patient and affordable capital, combined with technical assistance, to support energy efficiency upgrades for commercial projects. In New Orleans, the grant funding will provide cash to low- and middle-income contractors to take on more green infrastructure projects. Another project, national in scope, will finance solar microgrids with battery backup at federally qualified health centers in low-income communities.

With their specialized expertise in reaching markets underserved by mainstream finance, CDFIs are ideally positioned to finance projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. OFN has previously awarded more than $2.3 million to 26 member CDFIs through this grant program.

2022 Renewable and Energy Efficiency Financing Grantees

• Affordable Homes of South Texas
  McAllen, Texas
• African Economic Development Solutions
  Paul, Minnesota
• Capital Good Fund
  Providence, Rhode Island
• Chicago Community Loan Fund
  Chicago, Illinois
• Cincinnati Development Fund 
  Cincinnati, Ohio
• City First Enterprises
  Washington, D.C.
• Coastal Enterprises (CEI)
  Brunswick, Maine
• Community Health Center Capital Fund
  Boston, Massachusetts
• Craft3
  Astoria, Oregon
• GROW South Dakota
  Sisseton, South Dakota
• justine PETERSEN
  Louis, Missouri
• Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation
  London, Kentucky
• Latino Economic Development Corporation
  Washington, D.C.
• LiftFund
  San Antonio, Texas
• Mill Cities Community Investments
  Lawrence, Massachusetts
• Mountain Association
  Berea, Kentucky
• National Housing Trust Community Development Fund
  Washington, D.C.
• Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida
  Miami, Florida 
• New Hampshire Community Loan Fund
  Concord, New Hampshire
• NewCorp, Inc.
  New Orleans, Louisiana
• One Roof Housing
  Duluth, Minnesota
• The Catalytic Fund
  Covington, Kentucky
• Triple Bottom Line Foundation
  Denver, Colorado
• Woodlands Community Lenders
  Elkins, West Virginia

Visit OFN’s website to learn more about the Renewable and Energy Efficiency Financing Grant and see the complete list of awardees.