The Environmental Finance Center is pleased to introduce our Environmental Leadership Program. This initiative is a natural extension of the Leadership Program offered by our partners at the National Center for Smart Growth www.smartgrowth.umd.edu. It is designed to foster the development of effective and inspired leadership skills on a variety of environmental issues in Mid-Atlantic communities.

Please check our website soon for more information on our 2008 events including:

Watershed Financing

Green Infrastructure

Agricultural Marketing Opportunities

Environmental Finance Center Training

The Environmental Finance Center offers a variety of training opportunities for local communities on topics related to financing sewer, stormwater, source drinking water, and similar systems, septic upgrades, and watershed financing.

Stormwater Financing for Municipalities

The Stormwater Financing for Municipalities Workshop provides the background and lays the groundwork for establishing and maintaining strong, well-coordinated stormwater management programs for municipalities.

The workshop begins with an overview of the history, development and progression of stormwater management programs and highlights the paradigm shift from flood control to a focus on water quality.

The workshop will outline the financing tools and legal and process issues that must be evaluated when innovative financing approaches are being considered. The session will also address general guidelines for establishing your program, ranging from gaining acceptance to plan to implementation. In addition, a number of case studies will be highlighted to demonstrate the variety of approaches that can be considered.

Green Infrastructure Financing

As communities increasingly turn to water resource management plans that integrate both hard and green infrastructure, the challenge becomes determining how to pay for the implementation of these plans. The EFC’s Green Infrastructure Financing program is designed to provide participants a better understanding of the components of a sustainable financing strategy. Financing mechanisms discussed include cost-reducing measures, like collaboration, regulation, and leveraging community priorities; potential new revenue streams, such as utility fees, taxes, and voluntary programs; and market-based opportunities, like trading and incentive programs.

The EFC’s Green Infrastructure Financing offerings range from twenty minute introductory sessions that touch on general green infrastructure financing considerations to hour-long programs that delve into these considerations in greater detail and site relevant case studies from communities that have successfully incorporated these mechanisms into their own implementation strategies. A full-day workshop is also in the planning stages.

Green Building for Municipalities

Cities and states across the country are adopting green building standards at a rapid rate. Even in those communities that have not yet officially adopted specific ordinances, the development community is submitting green building applications in increasing numbers.

This workshop is designed to help municipal employees respond to this growing volume of plans and permit requests that do not fit the “business-as-usual” model. How prepared is your staff to respond to and to administer this new wave of green building.

For more information on any of these trainings, please contact: Joanne Throwe, Assistant Director, at 301 405-5036 or jthrowe@umd.edu.

National Center for Smart Growth Education and Training

Faculty and staff at the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education offer a range of educational presentations and programs designed to help practitioners be more effective in their smart growth-related work.

Presentations

Center staff may be retained to provide basic presentations about “smart growth” in general and/or about Maryland’s “Smart Growth and Neighborhood Conservation” initiative. In addition, specific Center faculty may be retained to provide more focused presentations on various issues related to Smart Growth, including the linkages to global warming, public health, highway design and related transportation issues, housing trends, scenario development, and more.

For information, contact: John W. Frece, Associate Director, at 301 405-6799 or jfrece@umd.edu.

Customized Smart Growth Leadership Training

Since 1998, the University of Maryland has periodically offered “smart growth” leadership training for student audiences that have included representatives of federal, state and local governments, non-profit organizations, public school teachers, and private businesses. These training sessions have addressed issues related to land-use, housing, transportation and other smart growth issues and have provided participants with the knowledge and skills needed to lead their agencies, companies or jurisdictions in implementing smart growth.

Based on this experience, the National Center for Smart Growth is willing to work with governments and/or other organizations and businesses to develop a leadership training curriculum that is tailored to fit the timetable, budget and substantive needs of the student audience. The Center brings to this task expertise grounded in research, teaching and practice and a set of educational processes that are engaging and transformative.

For information, contact: John W. Frece, Associate Director, at 301 405-6799 or jfrece@umd.edu.

Smart Growth Study Tours

Faculty, staff and affiliates of the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education have provided, at the request of groups from various states, study tours and visits to key Smart Growth sites in Maryland and elsewhere to help those from other jurisdictions determine the most successful Smart Growth strategy for them to pursue at home.

The National Center for Smart Growth would be pleased to explore with you the creation of a customized Smart Growth study tour or workshop for your group.

For information, contact: John W. Frece, Associate Director, at 301 405-6799 or jfrece@umd.edu.