Ecotrust to put $45 million in New Markets Tax Credits toward jobs, innovation

Apr 262013
 

Just days after the public launch of a successful New Markets Tax Credit-supported project, Ecotrust has learned that its subsidiary, Ecotrust CDE, was awarded $45 million of additional New Markets Tax Credit allocation. Ecotrust will put the new federal financing toward innovative initiatives that create economic, social and environmental benefit in rural and disadvantaged communities in the Northwest and beyond.

Ecotrust used past allocations of New Markets Tax Credits to support the Bullitt Center, the world’s leading-edge commercial green building, which opened on April 22, 2013. The 50,000-square-foot building, which continues renewal at the edge of Seattle’s Central and Capitol Hill Districts, will generate all of its own energy and use a rainwater filtering system to meet all of its water needs. Construction created 160 jobs and invested $30 million into the region’s economy.

The Bullitt Center under construction last year. Photo by John Stamets.

The Bullitt Center under construction late last year. Photo by John Stamets.

“The Bullitt Center is the latest example of how Ecotrust uses New Markets Tax Credits and other forms of capital to push environmental and social innovation while creating jobs and successful new business models,” says Spencer Beebe, chairman of Ecotrust.

Ecotrust’s latest allocation is part of $3.5 billion in New Markets Tax Credit awards to 85 organizations nationwide by the Treasury Department. This money is to be invested in creating and protecting jobs in disadvantaged and distressed communities.

This is the fourth allocation of New Markets Tax Credits that Ecotrust CDE has received since 2003.

Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) celebrated the news. “This is great news for Ecotrust and the entire Northwest,” said Merkley. “Ecotrust has been an incredible partner to Oregon’s rural communities, supporting economic development in environmentally sustainable industries ranging from forest products to clean energy. I look forward to seeing this new funding turn into jobs and economic activity across Oregon.”

Washington Governor Jay Inslee said:  “Wood products is a backbone, legacy industry in the Northwest. This support for innovation in green building will help spur new jobs in distressed rural communities with deep roots in the forestry sector. I applaud this opportunity to leverage public and private funding to support cutting-edge projects and ignite sustainable economic growth.”

Past Ecotrust allocations, totaling $122 million, have supported clean energy projects, a new model of timberland management, and forest products innovation, including:

  • Ochoco Lumber Company, which refinanced and stabilized the last remaining mill in John Day, Oregon and included the construction of a new pellet fuel facility.
  • Chobani, Inc, formerly Agro-Farma, Inc, to renovate and upgrade its yogurt manufacturing facility located in an economically distressed county of New York, and to finance the installation of a biogas plant to convert wastes from the yogurt production process into energy.
  • Ecotrust Forest Management<http://www.ecotrustforests.com/>, to support the purchase of 12,500 acres of timberland in Washington and Oregon and the conversion of the land to Forest Stewardship Council-certified  management, for multiple outcomes of timber, jobs, carbon sequestration, clean water and wildlife habitat.

Ecotrust CDE plans to use some of the latest NMTC allocations to support innovative new projects across the Northwest, including Northwest tribal governments’ re-acquisition of traditional lands.

“This allocation will provide critical financing for businesses and organizations in rural communities across the Pacific Northwest,” says Bettina von Hagen, Managing Director of Investments and Community Engagement of Ecotrust CDE. “We have a very exciting pipeline of projects, which includes the conversion of an abandoned retail space into a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, and the rejuvenation of shuttered facilities, including a paper mill, a sawmill and a biomass plant that will generate hundreds of family-wage jobs in highly distressed communities. We are particularly excited about the opportunity to work with tribes on land repatriation and the launch of related tribal forest processing businesses.”

Through Ecotrust CDE, Ecotrust uses New Markets Tax Credits as one tool in a wider strategy of impact investing to improve social, environmental and economic conditions up and down the West Coast. Over the last twenty years, Ecotrust has turned $30 million in grants and program- and mission-related investments into $800 million in assets at work throughout the region. Learn more about Ecotrust’s impact investing approach and history here.

The New Markets Tax Credit program, established by Congress in December 2000, permits corporate taxpayers to receive a credit against federal income taxes for making equity investments in vehicles known as Community Development Entities, or CDEs. The credit provided to the investor totals 39 percent of the cost of the investment and is claimed over a seven-year period. For every dollar invested by the federal government, the NMTC Program generates over eight dollars in private investment. President Obama’s FY14 budget included an expansion and permanent extension of the New Markets Tax Credit.

In the latest funding cycle, 282 CDEs applied for allocations, requesting a total of approximately $21.9 billion in allocations.

  • Allocation awards totaled $3.5 billion, or about 16 percent of the total amount requested by applicants.
  • Thirty percent of the total applicant pool – 85 CDEs – were awarded allocations.
  • Allocation awards range in size from $15 million to $80 million. The median allocation amount was $40 million and the average allocation amount was about $41.2 million.

More on this year’s awards and the New Markets Tax Credits program is here

Ecotrust’s Indigenous Leadership Award: And the nominees are…

Jul 252012
 

2012 ILA Honorees

Portland, Ore., — July 24, 2012 — Five forward-looking tribal leaders from the Pacific Northwest were announced today as finalists for the prestigious Ecotrust Indigenous Leadership Award.

The nominees (pictured left to right above):

  • Brian Cladoosby, Swinomish, La Conner, WA
  • Gail Small, Northern Cheyenne, Lame Deer, MT
  • Jonathan Andrew Waterhouse, S’Klallam-Chippewa-Cree, Anchorage, AK
  • Micah McCarty, Makah, Neah Bay, WA
  • Patience Andersen Faulkner, Chugach Eskimo, Cordova, AK

“This year’s finalists are exceptional national and international leaders, with accomplishments in Indian Country and far beyond,” said Rick George, Ecotrust’s vice president of indigenous affairs and policy. “They are bringing their cultures, traditions, and unique perspectives into the marketplace, policy forums, and communities throughout the region. Ecotrust values their counsel as we shape our own policies and programs at the intersection of social, economic, and environmental change.”

The Ecotrust Indigenous Leadership Award is given each year to one awardee and four honorees who show extraordinary dedication to their culture and who work to improve the economic and environmental conditions of their homelands and people. Since 2001, 48 tribal leaders have been honored. And through the generous support of a private endowment, Ecotrust awards $25,000 to the awardee and $5,000 to the four other honorees to continue their work.

A special jury panel comprised of tribal elders and leaders and Ecotrust President and Founder Spencer Beebe will convene in late August to decide this year’s top awardee.

The awards will be conferred November 13, 2012 at the Portland Art Museum. Find more details on the award ceremony here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3732409738

More about each finalist follows:

Brian Cladoosby

As chairman of the Swinomish Tribal Senate in coastal Washington, Cladoosby has shown exceptional skill in strengthening economic and environmental conditions among Coast Salish tribal communities. He has cultured a unified voice for members of 66 Coast Salish Tribes and Nations, allowing them to protect indigenous human rights and to restore the region from ecological degradation. Through his expansion efforts, Swinomish Fish Company now sources salmon from 22 tribes at one of two remaining canneries in western Washington. Cladoosby has led regional and national efforts to form new ties between Salish people, scientists and the Obama administration.

Gail Small

A lawyer and tribal leader with the Northern Cheyenne for nearly 30 years, Small’s work has changed the landscape of Indian law and environmental policy in the Northwest and nationwide. Her efforts have resulted in the establishment of the first bank, the first public high school and the first Chamber of Commerce on the North Cheyenne reservation. She has successfully drafted tribal laws for a number of Indian tribes, including code on traditional tribal burials, tribal environmental policy, and the tribal administrative policy, which helped set national precedent. She also facilitated the assertion of tribal authority over air and water quality standards on her reservation. A winner of numerous honors and awards over the years, Small’s work on environmental justice was the subject of an award-winning 2005 documentary, Homeland.

Jonathan Andrew Waterhouse

Waterhouse has tirelessly worked to restore the Yukon River Watershed. Among his many roles, Waterhouse serves as executive director for the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council (YRITWC), a grassroots organization that brings together 70 sovereign indigenous governments with a simple goal: “To be able to drink directly from the Yukon River.” Waterhouse has been able to translate the group’s leadership vision into meaningful and significant implementation. His work and that of the Watershed Council serve as a model for other indigenous peoples around the world, as they attempt to restore, protect and preserve their watersheds and to exercise their traditional knowledge as a foundation for achieving their goals.

Micah McCarty

As chairman of the Makah Tribal Council on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, McCarty has garnered important successes for Makah Nation by serving as a liaison between indigenous communities and the broader political system. His work in Neah Bay, Washington has led to significant headway in strengthening the response to oil spills in coastal waters, has helped protect tribal whaling rights, and has fostered stronger connections between tribal nations and U.S. governments. McCarty’s leadership on the Puget Sound Partnership brings deep traditional knowledge to a 21st-century effort to clean up the sound.

Patience Andersen Faulkner

Faulkner, a community organizer and traditional crafts teacher, is honored for her fostering of native culture and community health in her hometown of Cordova, Alaska. She has also carried her experience and wisdom to native communities and local organizers across the country. Her work centers on the idea that strong, revitalized native communities steeped in indigenous culture are the cornerstones for resilience in an ever-changing world. When the inevitable forces of change bear down on Cordova and similar communities around the country — as they have in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico — Faulkner has been able to demonstrate that strong local ties and knowledge form a crucial safety net.

###

About Ecotrust’s Indigenous Leadership Award
Since 2001, Ecotrust’s Indigenous Leadership Award has recognized 48 of the nation’s top tribal leaders for their dedication to their culture and their work to improve the economic and environmental conditions of their homelands and people. At an annual ceremony celebrating these leaders, Ecotrust presents $25,000 to one awardee and $5,000 each to four other honorees, to further their mission in strengthening their communities. Learn more at www.ecotrust.org/indigenousleaders.

A walking tour of resilience in Portland

Jun 112012
 

By Tim Gibbins

In the past twenty years, geologists have determined that the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a 600-mile-long fault off the Northwest coast, is overdue for a major earthquake. The last major quake was on January 26th, 1700 on the fault, where the oceanic Juan de Fuca Plate rumbles beneath the North American Plate; geologists have found repeated historical records of major earthquakes occurring at the Cascadia Subduction Zone every 250 years.

The question is not if a major earthquake will hit Oregon, but when.

And our ability to think and plan around this reality — to mobilize and prepare for a threat that is rare but potentially devastating —is one of the region’s toughest resilience challenges.  It must be tackled, but how?

Earthquake Awareness Tour of Old Town Portland from Mayor Sam Adams on Vimeo.

Since 1993, the Oregon Structural Specialty Codes for Portland’s buildings have required architects and engineers to construct buildings that can withstand significant seismic forces. Many of our schools, offices, bridges, and homes, however, were built before 1993.

A major earthquake at the Cascadia Subduction Zone could leave many of Portland and the Pacific Northwest’s buildings in rubble.

A report from the Oregon Department of Geology and Minerals Industry concludes that over 1,000 of Portland’s schools, hospitals, and other emergency facilities are at high to very high risk of significant structural damage during an earthquake.

In a place like California where the San Andreas Fault produces numerous minor to moderate earthquakes, the antiquated buildings get weeded out through a Darwinian process – they receive damage and are then retrofitted or demolished. But in Oregon, our buildings are vulnerable to a major quake because we have not had many earthquakes testing the foundations of our older buildings, says Ted Wolf of the Portland Earthquake Project – an informal collaborative group between members of Mercy Corps, the US Geological Survey, the Oregon Red Cross, and the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management.

The group formed to tackle Portland’s earthquake resilience through education. They noticed a knowledge gap between what geologists and engineers were finding and what the public understood. If policies to retrofit our buildings and funds to update our infrastructure are needed, then the public must clearly understand the geologic region in which it lives.

This spring the Portland Earthquake Project began the Cascadia Lecture Series to increase the public’s awareness of living in this dynamic geological region.

On Tuesday June 12th ,Yumei Wang, an engineer with the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, will lead the Portland Earthquake Walking Tour past four Old Town historic structures in downtown Portland, to address how each structure will fare in a major earthquake. The tour reprises one Wang took with media and Mayor Sam Adams earlier this spring.

Activities like the tour are a necessary reminder, says Ted Wolf, because we have a blind spot for active geology in the Northwest. We view our mountains and our coast as scenery instead of as a dynamic geologic force that shapes the place we live.

Tim Gibbins is an environmental writer living in Portland.

Innovation Space

Mar 052012
 

Beginning in 2011, Ecotrust staff have had the opportunity to spend a couple days a month on new and innovative projects for the organization that interest them. A group of us are ready to share one of our first projects.

This idea of allowing time for good ideas to percolate and come from anywhere within the organization isn’t new. Google’s 20% time was popularized in recent years and 3M developed the idea of 15% time for their engineers back in the 1950s. But having time isn’t enough, as many point out. You need a culture of sharing, a ‘marketplace of ideas’. At Ecotrust, we are fortunate to have that within the organization, which is constantly pushing for transformative ideas, and within our building, the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center (below), which features a whole suite of businesses pursuing a new, restorative economy.

For Ecotrust’s first innovation project, our software team joined with one of our extraordinary cartographers to develop a new workflow for creating and sharing online maps and the data behind them.  We wanted it to be simple, we wanted to allow our developers to work more closely with our cartographers and program staff, and, above all, we wanted beautiful interactive maps that felt less like tools and more like stories. As Ric Young, an Ecotrust Canada board member, once said, “the best story wins.”

We didn’t have to look far for the building blocks to make our idea come to life. Our good friend and former Ecotruster Dane Springmeyer has been doing amazing work with the folks at Development Seed on a project called TileMill, an open source design studio for creating rich interactive maps. Combining TileMill with complementary tools like Modest Maps, Wax and TileStream gave us a complete workflow for publishing maps online.

With our new mapping tools in place we connected with the Whole Watershed Restoration Initiative, an Ecotrust program which brings together federal and state agencies to fund high-priority salmon habitat restoration projects. Together we created an interactive project map that allows people to see WWRI-funded restoration work and to find out whether they fall within a priority area and are eligible for a WWRI grant.

Close-up of interactive map

This first map is just a start and we see a lot of potential for enhancing it further, including incorporating project audio, video and photographs. Going forward we envision using this new suite of tools to showcase Ecotrust’s work across the Pacific Northwest landscape. And there’s huge potential for other organizations to use the tool for geo-based storytelling.

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