Grantees

Georgetown Climate Center

Project

• The Georgetown Climate Center helps to advance government responses to the climate crisis in the U.S. at the national, state, and local levels. This grant supports developing preliminary nonpartisan research into how model state laws and policies might enable and support the adoption of local climate ordinances in Maine, Connecticut, New York, and Maryland. This grant will also provide general support for the Center’s Adaptation and Mitigation programs, which help city attorneys and sustainability staff address legal questions about climate action. 

Organization Website

Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy, and Land Use Law

Institution

• New York University

Project

• The Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy, and Land Use Law at NYU Law School conducts research and issues publications that advance energy and environmental policies for a sustainable and equitable economy. This grant supports its Unlocking Financing for Local Building Performance Standards project, which will analyze and address the challenges to unlocking financing for building owners in jurisdictions with Building Performance Standards laws.  

Organization Website

ICLEI USA

Project

• ICLEI USA is a network of local governments committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This grant supports ICLEI USA’s Capital Cities Clean Energy Collaborative project, which will help each city in the collaborative implement a policy or program that it developed during the initial year of this project when ICLEI USA worked with municipal staff, training them how to use climate data to establish evidence-based strategies to develop effective climate policies. 

Organization Website

Institute for Market Transformation

Project

• The Institute for Market Transformation creates and implements next-generation building performance policies to decarbonize buildings. This grant will help the Institute for Market Transformation provide strategic and technical assistance to cities as well as National BPS Coalition members to design and implement building performance standards. 

Organization Website

Interstate Renewable Energy Council

Project

• The Interstate Renewable Energy Council works to improve rules, regulatory policies, and technical standards to make clean energy widely accessible. This grant supports the Interstate Renewable Energy Council’s Building Local Capacity for Large-Scale Solar-Plus-Storage project, which will provide customized technical assistance to local governments ready to implement the toolkit recommendations it developed during the initial year of this project. The goal is to produce solutions and best practices to navigate large-scale solar planning, zoning, and permitting challenges. 

Organization Website

Nature Forward

Project

• Nature Forward advocates for regional reductions in greenhouse gas emissions while promoting natural solutions like tree planting and green infrastructure. This grant supports Nature Forward’s Langley Park and Brentwood Climate Resilience project, which will involve designing and installing climate-resilient green infrastructure at the site of CASA’s Maryland headquarters in Langley Park as well as in a park owned by the town of Brentwood. Both project sites would reduce downstream pollution, sequester carbon, and engage community members around climate change mitigation and resilience. 

Organization Website

Smart Surfaces Coalition

Project

• The Smart Surfaces Coalition is made up of more than 40 organizations with a shared commitment to creating cooler, healthier, and more climate-friendly and resilient cities by cost-effectively reducing the impacts of extreme urban heat and flooding. This grant supports the Smart Surfaces Coalition’s Municipal Smart Surfaces project, which will research and analyze smart surfaces policies that reduce municipal CO2 emissions, expand the Peer Learning Network, and create a National Smart Surfaces Implementation Platform to facilitate adoption of smart surfaces policies. 

Organization Website

American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy

Project

• The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy develops policies to reduce energy waste and combat climate change. This grant supports the organization’s Meeting the Moment: Deep Technical Assistance to Scale Up Energy Upgrades to Affordable Housing project, which will help its Residential Retrofits for Energy Equity initiative enhance the capacity of communities to design and launch programs that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve residents’ health, and address racial inequities. 

Organization Website

Building Decarbonization Coalition

Project

• The Building Decarbonization Coalition and its members seek to eliminate fossil fuels in buildings to improve people’s health, reduce climate and air pollution, and ensure that all communities are resilient to the impacts of climate change. This grant supports its Scaling Heat Pump Adoption Through Local Building Codes project, which works with building code experts, environmental advocates, and state government officials to help local governments adopt building codes that facilitate the transition to heat pumps. 

Organization Website

Center for Rural Affairs

Project

• The Center for Rural Affairs works closely with landowners and other rural stakeholders to ensure that clean energy generation and transmission is built in an equitable, sustainable way. This grant supports its Agrivoltaics and Rural Solar Development project, which will provide decision-makers, farmers, and other stakeholders with guidance on solar siting and zoning to facilitate implementation of dual-use solar and rural renewable energy projects. The goal is to establish an effective framework for integrating renewable projects while addressing rural community concerns. 

Organization Website

Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Project

• The Chesapeake Bay Foundation focuses on advocacy, restoration, and litigation to improve the health and resilience of the Chesapeake Bay. This grant supports its Nature-Based Climate Solutions at Clagett Farm project, which will expand its climate-smart agriculture by planting 8–10 acres of silvopasture and testing 3 acres of warm-season grasses, and will serve as a teaching tool for regional farmers.

Organization Website

Climate Mayors

Project

• Climate Mayors is a bipartisan, peer-to-peer network that has mobilized more than 350 U.S. mayors who demonstrate climate leadership through meaningful actions in their communities. This grant supports Climate Mayors’ Building Protection for Mayoral Leadership on Local Climate Policy project, which will provide mayors with tools, tactics, and successful case studies on how to advance climate change policy within states that limit local authority on energy use, transportation electrification, and building decarbonization. 

Organization Website

Community Native Planting Project

Project

• The Community Native Planting Project’s objective is to remove invasive plants and re-establish site-appropriate native plants in Prince George’s County’s public and private spaces. This grant supports its work to transform two sites in Bladensburg, MD, into thriving ecological spaces and community amenities. The first project will allow the completion of a climate resilience effort adjacent to the Public Library. The second project will create a nature park on two-acres of seriously degraded land, establishing native plant habitats to combat climate change and providing a historically underserved community with ready access to a natural space. 

Organization Website

Conservation Law Foundation

Project

• The Conservation Law Foundation protects New England’s environment by using law, science, and markets to create solutions that preserve and restore natural resources as well as build healthy and resilient communities. This grant supports its Expanding Access to Clean Energy Sources for Environmental Justice Communities project, which will engage in each New England state’s Solar for All program design and implementation processes to ensure maximum impact for low-income and environmental justice communities.

Organization Website

Earthjustice

Project

• Earthjustice is a public interest environmental law nonprofit that relies on litigation, communications, and policy expertise to enforce and strengthen laws, build public support, and shape regulations to address the climate crisis. This grant supports Earthjustice’s Advancing Clean Energy in New York project, which will engage in various regulatory proceedings to ensure the state’s compliance with its clean energy and greenhouse gas reduction targets while prioritizing energy justice for disadvantaged communities.  

Organization Website

Environmental Law and Policy Center

Project

• The Environmental Law and Policy Center is a Midwest-focused public interest environmental legal advocacy and eco-business innovation organization. This grant supports the Environmental Law and Policy Center’s Power Plants to Parklands and Renewable Energy project, which seeks to transform retired coal plant sites into public parklands as well as for use to generate solar energy and for battery energy storage. The project will develop a toolkit to help regional organizations and stakeholders initiate and implement customizable transformation strategies for similar efforts around the country.

Organization Website

Environmental Law Institute

Project

• Founded in 1969, the non-partisan Environmental Law Institute develops law and policy and educates legal professionals about climate law and science. This grant supports the Environmental Law Institute’s Climate Judiciary Project, which provides neutral, evidence-based judicial education about the science of climate change and its relevance to the law.

Organization Website

Great Plains Institute

Project

• The Great Plains Institute collaborates with local governments and businesses to develop and implement strategies for achieving emissions reduction goals and works to support market conditions that enable widespread adoption of clean energy technologies. This grant supports its Advancing Local Government Climate Ordinances project, which will provide technical assistance and training for urban planners and city sustainability staff in 15 upper Midwest cities to help foster clean-energy development.

Organization Website

GridLab

Project

• GridLab provides technical grid expertise to enhance policy decision-making and to ensure a rapid transition to a reliable, cost-effective, and low carbon future. This grant supports GridLab’s OpenIRP Center, which will coordinate GridLab’s partnerships with resource planners, utilities, and other stakeholders to build support for integrated resource planning open-source models and best practices. These models and practices will improve grid reliability by increasing deployment of clean energy resources. 

Organization Website

Joe’s Movement Emporium

Project

• Founded in 1995, Joe’s Movement Emporium offers programming in the arts to celebrate the creativity of young people, particularly those from underserved communities. In 2022, Joe’s implemented its GreenWorks program, a year-round environmental and community development initiative to provide young adults with entry-level environmental jobs in their own communities. This grant supports a GreenWorks project to protect and increase tree canopy in three Prince George’s County communities that have experienced environmental disinvestment: Capitol Heights, District Heights, and Seat Pleasant.  

Organization Website

Neighborhood Design Center

Project

• The Neighborhood Design Center works with residents and community organizations in underserved Baltimore and Prince George’s County communities to design and implement environmentally sustainable community projects. This grant supports its project to restore the East Pines Community Forest in Prince George’s County, which will address multiple urgent needs: closing the green space access gap, mitigating environmental degradation, and fostering community health and resilience. The Neighborhood Design Center will use this project as a pilot to develop templates, management practices, and community engagement strategies that can be scaled county-wide. 

Organization Website

New Buildings Institute

Project

• The New Buildings Institute works with governments, utilities, manufacturers, building professionals, and community-based organizations to develop policies, strategies, and best practices that eliminate emissions from buildings and infrastructure. This grant supports its Local and Model Code Decarbonization project, which will enable advancements in building codes on two strategic fronts: in state and city building codes, as well as through broader model codes such as the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) to encourage meaningful efficiency gains and carbon emission reductions nationally. 

Organization Website

Rocky Mountain Institute

Project

• Rocky Mountain Institute’s Buildings team works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings by advancing scalable policies and market solutions. This grant supports its Zero-Fuel Bias Codes project, which helps states identify and remove code biases that favor incumbent fuel sources in new construction and provides technical assistance to local governments that lack the capacity to advance electrification policies that improve building codes.

Organization Website

Southern Environmental Law Center

Project

• The Southern Environmental Law Center focuses on protecting basic rights to clean air, clean water, and a livable climate as well as bringing cleaner and more reliable energy to the South. This grant supports its Harnessing Zoning Incentives to Expand EV Charging Infrastructure project, which will support the Southern Environmental Law Center’s work in several Virginia localities to incentivize developers to expand EV infrastructure in multifamily housing.  

Organization Website