A Portland Fund, Collected from Corporations, Finances Community Benefits — Episode 120 of Local Energy Rules

Well, let’s just go ahead and jump in with this first question then. So, Jaimes, I guess to start, I just want to ask this general question. As someone from Minneapolis, I can say that 2020 has been kind of a turbulent year. I was just kind of curious how the protests over racial injustice have impacted or changed your work.

And so it’s been a couple of years since that November, and we’ve been really busy in the last couple of years getting the program launched. And so I was brought on and kind of the first staff was, was hired about a year and a half ago. And I guess it was June of 2019. And then really we, we led with a lot of community engagement. We had an event in September, 2019 to really pull people together that were both the organizations and people that were involved in the ballot initiative, but also other organizations that were interested and who saw the opportunity to create new pathways for green jobs, for energy efficiency and renewable energy investments for green infrastructure investments in our city. And so really kind of brainstorm and identify where there was a need to address barriers, where there was interest and excitement and different types of projects also where, or there was a need for capacity building and additional resources. And so, um, over the past year, year and a half, we’ve done a lot of community outreach and listening. And then also the kind of key decision-making body for the Portland Clean Energy Fund is a nine person volunteer committee that really helped establish the structure of the fund and has been dedicating an enormous amount of time in the program launch. And so this is, uh, nine people from the Portland community that represent a variety of different backgrounds and expertise. Um, we have a racially and ethnically diverse group, really good gender balance as well. And, you know, I I’d say that a lot of the work has been iterative. We’ve been coming up with ideas and then providing opportunity for input and reflection and public comment. The program lives within the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. So we, as we also have a lot of the infrastructure of the city and the public outreach elements that the city would would do, but we’ve also had to create new pathways. And so part of that has been through different types of events and community building and direct presentations to nonprofit organizations and coalitions within the city, and really prioritizing those that serve black indigenous and people of color.

And then just a few weeks ago, we were able to release kind of the first RFP $8.6 million worth of funding. However, there was one other milestone that we thought was necessary and important, and the grant committee helped provide vision for which was a recognition that a lot of smaller nonprofit organizations, especially those serving marginalized populations or black indigenous and people of color didn’t have the capacity and resources to apply for grant funds. They may not be familiar with some of those processes or how to have the grant writing training, or have the kind of organizational technology that they need, especially in our current time of COVID and not being able to engage with the communities they serve in a normal way kind of in person. So we created something that we call application support grant funds, which was an opportunity for nonprofit organizations to receive a small amount of funding, about $5,000 per organization to get ready to apply for either Portland Clean Energy Fund grants or other grants related to climate and social equity. And so we put those out about two months ago or so, and we had overwhelming interest in those resources. We had over 130 applicants to that process and were able to fund 42 organizations to prepare themselves to get ready. And so that application was very short. It was a one page survey monkey form where we really were finding a kind of balance between ensuring that there were in the nonprofit organizations that kind of were meeting the basic criteria of eligibility, but that really we’re focusing on those that are small organizations and those that serve black and indigenous people within Portland. And so we had a prioritization to reach organizations that perhaps hadn’t previously seen themselves as being involved in climate change work or weren’t as aware of the grant opportunities and processes.

And so, uh, yeah, we’re now in the process of distributing those funds and getting organizations ready to apply for this round of funding that is open right now, again, that $8.6 million and in future rounds we’ll have significantly more resources. The kind of annual budget for the Portland Clean Energy Fund is more on the order of 40 to $60 million per year. But this introductory round is kind of a ramp up to that full funding amount.

And so, yeah, all of that is very much within kind of the RFP. And one of the ways that we’re, I guess, tangibly addressing that is really looking for a matchup between the organization goal and mission. Who’s served by a nonprofit organization applying for Portland clean energy fund, but also looking to ensure that the board and the staff reflect the population that is served. So that there’s an alignment between the mission and who does the work. So those are some of the ways that, you know, if you dig into the details of the, of the RFP, that ballot initiative language really manifests itself.

As you mentioned, there’s sort of some defined program areas, including funding allocations, about 50% of the fund for clean energy programs. And so this is really looking at improving the places where people live, work, worship and learn, you know, it can be working on residential homes and making those more energy efficient and healthier, addressing both necessary health and safety improvements, as well as energy efficiency or renewable opportunities. It could be doing large retrofits on even some multi-family or for commercial properties as well, or working with schools and churches to improve the energy efficiency of those buildings and help ensure local generation from solar or, or other innovative technologies is, is coming on the grid as, as part of those investments. Then there’s a 15% allocation for green infrastructure, regenerative agriculture. And so that that’s really about the ways that the living systems around the city help sequester carbon. So this is things like street trees, bike lanes, or street side planters, and also urban agriculture and kind of regenerative practices to help sequester more carbon in soil as part of the food system. And localizing elements of that food system. And then there’s a workforce and contractor development allocation of funding. This is really ensuring that we have new pathways to get people who have historically been excluded or left out of clean energy jobs into that workplace. And so this could be apprenticeship training programs. It could be partnerships with getting more contractors of color into the business community to do the work. Um, it could take a variety of different different ways. And then there’s, uh, about a 5% allocation for innovation, just recognizing broadly that there’s a lot of creativity out there in the community, a lot of ideas that have both carbon reduction benefit and also social equity benefit, but, you know, don’t fit into those preexisting buckets. So I’d say we want creativity. It definitely is part of what we see, but we also, you know, I think we do want projects that can be implemented in the near term. And especially as we, as we see the economic impacts of COVID and really significant job losses, some of which are structural in nature, we need to really be thinking about what the new energy economy and what a just green recovery looks like from COVID economically, not just going back to some preexisting normal, which was really injust to begin with.

We’re going to take a short break. When we come back, I ask if this new fund is sufficient to get the city to its ambitious 100% renewable electricity and 10% local energy goals by 2035, why there’s a growing movement of cities taxing big companies to fund local equity measures, and what advice Jaimes has for other cities considering similar climate and equity funds. You’re listening to a Local Energy Rules interview with Jaimes Valdez, member of the startup team for the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund.

We often talk about displacement, but what we want is community stability as a result of these funds being deployed and for people to have healthier homes that are cheaper to operate that help provide new wealth building opportunities and, you know, a cleaner environment for both, you know, the broader climate lens, but also within their neighborhood. And so, yeah, in terms of measuring that, I mean, we, frankly just within the Bureau often look at tools like the American Community Survey and broader demographic tools, but part of what we’re doing as a program is going to be tracking the engagement with the grant recipients and having them report back on who benefited from the project, what were the demographics and income levels of the people whose houses were weatherized or who participated in the renewable energy program or who was involved in the workforce development on their street tree planting program, let’s say, if one gets funded. So there’s a, maybe a non-answer because it’s so complicated.