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Environmentally- Sustainable Development
Earth Day is the perfect opportunity to highlight how EDA is supporting projects that enhance environmental quality and is promoting environmentally-sustainable development initiatives to transform our nation’s economy for the 21st century.
As part of the Obama administration’s vision for a robust green economy, EDA is working with other federal agencies, strategic partners and local leaders to build a more innovation-driven, environmentally responsible economy.
While all of EDA’s 2010 investment priorities could involve projects relating to alternative energy, green technologies and other efforts that promote energy independence, two of these priorities, Environmentally-Sustainable Development and National Strategic Priorities, are specifically designed with sustainability in mind. Two of EDA’s funding mechanisms – the Public Works and Economic Development Program and the Global Climate Change Mitigation Incentive Fund (GCCMIF) touch critical areas of both economic growth and energy independence.
Through its Public Works and Economic Development program, EDA investments help support the construction or rehabilitation of essential public infrastructure and facilities. Investments include those which expand and upgrade infrastructure to attract new industry, support technology-led development, redevelop brownfield sites and provide eco-industrial development.
In the area of brownfields redevelopment EDA (working closely with Environmental Protection Agency) creates value by returning non-productive, blighted and/or formerly contaminated real estate to local tax roles while fostering capital investment and creating higher-skill, living-wage jobs. EDA has funded feasibility studies, revolving loan fund capitalization, infrastructure construction and the creation of redevelopment plans across the country.
EDA's GCCMIF was established to strengthen the linkages between economic development and environmental quality through financing projects that advance the green economy in distressed communities. The GCCMIF supports projects that create jobs through, and increase private capital investment in, efforts to limit the nation's dependence on fossil fuels, enhance energy efficiency, curb greenhouse gas emissions and protect natural resources.
EDA has also funded the development of several business incubators, co-ops and other facilities that serve as hotbeds for research, development and innovation in the green technology or lean manufacturing space, as well as numerous buildings that are Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Key Green Investments: Philadelphia Regional Offices 2009 Energy Task Force Green Program
In October 2008, the Philadelphia Regional Office (PRO) Energy Task Force (ETF) - consisting of Chairman Paul Matyskiela, Phil Saputo and Anne Cavalier - was formed to focus on the nexus between economic development and environmental quality, define EDA's niche in green job creation and to forge partnerships with other federal agencies and stakeholders.
The PRO funded a strategy to convert a former Dow Chemical research facility in South Charleston, WV into the Eastern Energy Commercialization Center. This demonstration project could become a model for leveraging the resources of universities and national energy labs. The task force also coordinated with EPA, DOE and the Puerto Rico Government to develop a Renewable Energy Landfill Initiative to position Puerto Rico to become the epicenter for solar panel manufacturing in the Caribbean. The effort is intended to utilize compromised lands for renewable energy production and invest the revenue generated from the sale of electricity to offset landfill closure costs.
In addition, the Economic Development Representative/Specialist for West Virginia (Anne Cavalier), Puerto Rico, Pennsylvania (Alma Plummer) and Massachusetts (Matt Suchodolski) all developed investments that adhered to the criteria outlined in the GCCMIF. Although the ETF has concluded its work, the groundwork that it developed has made each EDR/EDS in PRO keenly aware of the agency's need to incorporate "Green" Technology Development Opportunities with legacy programs.
