Montgomery County Green
Economic Development Initiative
Climate Prosperity Project National Leadership
Meeting
San Jose, CA
February 21st, 2009
Contact: Eric R. Coffman
eric.coffman@montgomerycountymd.gov
Coordinating Organizations
Montgomery County
Government Collaboration between the County’s
Department of Economic Development
(www.smartmontgomery.gov)
and
Environmental Protection
( www.montgomerycountymd.gov/DEP )
Initiated February 2009
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Stakeholders – Green Economy Task
Force
Task Force Representatives from
Members:
Calvert Special Equities
Montgomery College
Standard Solar
Pepco/PHI
Google
Sentech Inc
Technology and Economic Development
Corporation
Red Wiggler Community Farm
Marriott International
Clean Currents and more
Garber Schubert Barer
Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce
Covington and Burling
Eco-Ipso LLC
Davis and Davis Construction
Johns Hopkins, Montgomery County
Bethesda Green
BG&E/Constellation
National Institute of Technology
Potomac Incorporated
Ex Officio Task Force Members:
Sierra Club
Department of Economic
Washington Gas
Development Department of Environmental Protection
Telebright
Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Department of
University System of Maryland
General Services
Montgomery County Council
Montgomery County Public Schools
Office of Congressman Chris Van Hollen
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Decision Makers and Leadership
Task force is focused on the public all government entities are exofficio.
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
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Economic, Environmental, and Social
Challenges
Environmental:
•
Rapidly Rising greenhouse gas emissions from energy consumption, transportation,
aggressive GHG reduction goals
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Water quality, compliance with MS4 permuting requirements.
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Loss of forest canopy
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Air quality (ground level ozone and particulates.)
Economic:
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Historically low (less than 4%) unemployment, however not equally distributed.
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Budget shortfalls and need to generate tax revenue to meet service demands.
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Desire to build green industries to complement nation leading sustainability policies,
growing economic base.
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Need to accelerate clean energy entrepreneurial opportunities.
Social:
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Need to ensure the benefits of a clean economy are passed on equitably to all segments of
the population.
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Creation of job and high quality meaningful employment opportunities for the most
disadvantaged population.
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Goals of the Climate Prosperity Strategy
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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.
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Green Savings
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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.
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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
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Green Talent
Montgomery County is ripe for the creation and attraction of green talent
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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.
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Strategic Planning Process
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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/2009mococlimprotpla
n.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.
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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
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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
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Financing Sources
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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).
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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.
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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
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