Montgomery County Green Economic Development Initiative Climate Prosperity Project National...

Montgomery County Green Economic Development Initiative

Climate Prosperity Project National Leadership Meeting

San Jose, CA February 21st, 2009

Contact: Eric R. Coffman [email protected]

2Montgomery County, MD - Climate Prosperity Strategy

Coordinating OrganizationsMontgomery County

Government Collaboration between the County’s

Department of Economic Development

(www.smartmontgomery.gov)

and

Environmental Protection

( www.montgomerycountymd.gov/DEP )

Initiated February 2009


Stakeholders – Green Economy Task Force

Task Force Representatives from Members:

Garber Schubert Barer Montgomery County Chamber of CommerceCovington and Burling Eco-Ipso LLC Davis and Davis ConstructionJohns Hopkins, Montgomery CountyBethesda Green BG&E/Constellation National Institute of Technology Potomac IncorporatedSierra Club Washington GasTelebright University System of Maryland

Calvert Special Equities Montgomery CollegeStandard Solar Pepco/PHI GoogleSentech Inc Technology and Economic Development CorporationRed Wiggler Community FarmMarriott InternationalClean Currents and more

Ex Officio Task Force Members:Department of Economic Development Department of Environmental Protection Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Department of General Services Montgomery County Council Montgomery County Public SchoolsOffice of Congressman Chris Van Hollen


Decision Makers and Leadership

Task force is focused on the public all government entities are ex-officio.

Task Force Chair:

Dick Wegman, Attorney Garvey Schubert and Barer

County Executive and County Representatives

County Executive Isiah Leggett

Pradeep Ganguly, Director Department of Economic Development

Bob Hoyt, Director Department of Environmental Protection

Strategic Guidance and Consulting

Sustainable Design Group


Economic, Environmental, and Social Challenges

Environmental:

• Rapidly Rising greenhouse gas emissions from energy consumption, transportation, aggressive GHG reduction goals

• Water quality, compliance with MS4 permuting requirements.

• Loss of forest canopy

• Air quality (ground level ozone and particulates.)

Economic:

• Historically low (less than 4%) unemployment, however not equally distributed.

• Budget shortfalls and need to generate tax revenue to meet service demands.

• Desire to build green industries to complement nation leading sustainability policies, growing economic base.

• Need to accelerate clean energy entrepreneurial opportunities.

Social:

• Need to ensure the benefits of a clean economy are passed on equitably to all segments of the population.

• Creation of job and high quality meaningful employment opportunities for the most disadvantaged population.


Goals of the Climate Prosperity Strategy

• Organize public and private investment in green technology and green business.

• Enhance the green business climate by supporting legislation and policies that will foster near and long term growth.

• Foster a connection between academia, businesses, non-profits and all levels of government represented in the County.

• Increase diversity in the County’s Green economy by supporting green services, green product development, green buildings and business sector efforts to go green

• Lead by example, create new markets for green products and services by adopting technologies and practices in County facilities and funded projects

• Promote and market Montgomery County’s Green Business sector nationally and internationally.


Green Savings

• The County completed a Climate Protection Plan, many recommendations from the plan will result in net savings over time to the County. Sample recommendations include:– Leveraging Renewable Energy Power Purchase Agreements, getting solar and other resources installed now. Some projects have energy cost and demand savings now, all will

have savings over time compared to rising electricity costs.– Energy-Efficiency In Public Buildings, we recently completed a thorough baseline study of all County buildings. This study has identified $57 to 67 million in capital

improvements with a potential for $7.2 million annually in savings, an average of a 8 to 9 year payback. – An innovative loan program “HELP” to be introduced next week can save each household $200 to $400 annually in energy costs, after paying for the debt service and creating

work for contractors and energy auditors. – Recommendation for improving the efficiency of all existing private sector commercial buildings 25% by 2020, would save tens of millions in energy costs annually more than

paying for upfront costs.

• Example existing policies :– Recycling programs and municipal solid waste management keep residential garbage collection costs at enormous lows.– Improvements to buildings to date for County operations have saved over $15 million annually.

Policies Recommended by Sustainability Working Group:


Green Opportunities

– Attracting new businesses that provide green services;– Driving innovation, research and development into next generation technologies;– Retaining existing green product, service, research and development sector businesses and fostering the creation of new green companies;– Forming a cohesive green business network to enable information exchange and partnerships;– Translating progressive County policies into green business opportunities;– Leveraging and directing private investment and federal funding to County businesses;– Facilitating workforce training and retraining to meet the needs of current and next generation green jobs;– Promoting the County’s green business cluster regionally, nationally and internationally


Green Talent

Montgomery County is ripe for the creation and attraction of green talent

• Forge educational partnerships with the Universities at Shady Grove (9 University System of Maryland Institutions and 69 programs on one campus), Montgomery College, and Montgomery County Public Schools. Enabling “High School through Post Doctorate” training opportunities.

• Harness the capabilities of workforce training programs to provide quality professional development and training opportunities for “green workers”

• Create opportunities for “green talent” exchange within the existing community to enable companies going green to identify pools of talented individuals.

• Attract leading researchers and technical specialists • Use business innovation network, incubator program to take “start-up”

innovation and create talented sustainable businesses.


Strategic Planning Process

• Climate Protection Plan – Developed over the last year by the 26 member Sustainability Working Group. Resulting in 58 actionable items focused on greenhouse gas reductions. Over 100 stakeholders involved. http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/dep/Sustainability/2009mococlimprotplan.pdf

• Green Economy Task Force – Body of 30 plus individuals from the business, academic, and non-profit community focused on developing a “10 point green economic strategy. Website will be p soon at www.smartmontgomery.com

• Green Economy 10 Point Plan - A strategy merging environmental policies and economic development activities to result in overall greater prosperity, quality of life and environmental quality. Supported by Sustainable Design Group. Includes three major components.

– Phase I: Inventory the County’s Green Economy Cluster, identify model jurisdictions, provide projections of the County’s Green Economy under its current trajectory.

– Phase II: Identify short and long term green economy/technology sectors where the County has a competitive advantage.– Phase III: Develop a “10 Point Plan” that will form the basis of the County’s Green Economy Strategy The 10-Point Plan may be

comprised of funding recommendations, policy initiatives, new partnerships, regulation changes, suggestions for capital projects, workforce development, business attraction and retention initiatives etc.


Fundamental Assets and Competitive Advantages

• Proximity to Washington, D.C. metro area• Nationally recognized track-record with biotechnology, now over

12,000 jobs and 250 companies• Mature business innovation network of 5 incubators, including green

tech companies • Diverse community ranging from planned urban centers to

agricultural reserves• Leading educational institutions• Key partnerships with federal institutions, business community and

educational organizations• Progressive sustainability policies• Existing programs including Clean Energy Rewards and Green

Business Certification• Highly educated community• Others as defined by plan development


Obstacles and Impediments

• Hard economic times straining County budgets• Clear delineation of priorities and strategies moving forward• Uncertain levels of financing and venture capital for green technology

companies• Identifying and meeting the needs of green technology companies (or

defining what one is)• Ramping up workforce development efforts to meet demand from

policy initiatives such as stimulus packages• Ensuring program survival if stimulus funding is not replaced by new

federal, state or local sources of capital


Financing Sources

• Financing sources are a key barrier.

• Strategy will focus on reprioritizing and focusing existing funding sources, and prudently evaluating new funding sources (e.g., energy and carbon taxes, existing workforce development funds).

• Leverage federal resources including the recently passed stimulus package. Montgomery County has been an ardent supporter of the Energy Efficiency Block Grants (a former Montgomery County congressman introduced the component into the 2007 Energy Act).

• Harness the power of partnerships to align mutual resources resulting in greater gains than individual organization investment alone.

• Shift of budgets for public buildings from utility accounts to principle and debt service payments for improvements (e.g., performance contracts where appropriate).


Community/Resident Outreach

• Green Economy Task Force and Sustainability Working Group meetings are open to the public, participation encouraged.

• Ensure accountability of local and federal funding through transparent programs bolstering resident confidence.

• Active media engagement, forge relationships with local media. Use the power of published, radio and television to push positive efforts out to the public.

• Harness the power of technology including:– High quality information on the initiative, its objectives, principals and activities.– Leverage the most advanced new web tools, blogs, RSS feeds, face

book/twitter, YouTube, Google Earth to enhance communication, transparency, and active promotion of green economic participants.

– Live video conferences open to the public through streaming video.


Assistance Needed from Climate Prosperity and Partner Jurisdictions

• Exchange of best practices, models, RFP templates, and other information.

• Collaboration with both regional and national partners on consistent programs, messaging, and mutual exchange of resources.

• Collective advocacy for climate, energy and other environmental policies that are structured not only to create regulations or voluntary programs but new business and workforce opportunities.

• Joint advocacy for continued federal investment in green technologies and infrastructure

Montgomery County Green Economic Development Initiative Climate Prosperity Project National...

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