Racing to the Top: Forward-Thinking Maryland State Policy Drives More Efficient Public and Private Investment in Bold Environmental Solutions
by George Kelly, Managing Director
Green Ridge State Forest, Western Maryland
Public policy innovation is one of the major enablers of more systemic change. To that end, we were thrilled to see Maryland Governor Larry Hogan sign the Conservation Finance Act into law on April 21.
The legislation is notable for its comprehensive changes to state contracting law, environmental funds, and green and blue infrastructure programs that will help achieve Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, forest conservation, climate, and environmental justice goals without increasing the state budget.
Three recent pieces of legislation in Maryland – the Conservation Finance Act, Clean Water Commerce Act, and Climate Solutions Act – create a policy triumvirate to bring more partnership and payment innovation to bear on climate, environmental justice, clean water, and resiliency challenges.
As a native Marylander and an executive in a Maryland-based company, it is exciting for my state to be a pioneer in adopting innovative conservation finance legislation that will unleash additional funding and financing for green and blue infrastructure. This will jumpstart even more private investment in conservation – Maryland’s goal is to attract at least $100 million of new private finance each year – to enable public dollars to go further, and open doors to new partnerships and capital sources.
This Earth Day, I find myself heartened by the progress we have made in using environmental markets as one tool to achieve environmental solutions but remain impatient about the speed of moving bold ideas and solutions to implementation in delivering more widespread environmental and resiliency benefits.
Watershed-scale and landscape-scale solutions are emerging that leverage public policy, partnerships, and payment streams to drive measurable change for people and planet. Yet, we can’t just wish these into existence, nor wait for them to evolve organically. We need to increase the speed and scale of our action.
We need leaders with the will and the way to think big, engage key community members and partners, establish meaningful targets, measure our progress toward agreed-upon outcomes, secure sustainable funding and financing, and translate ideas into action. This is the work of the team at Quantified Ventures.
There are bountiful opportunities for other states to leverage the Maryland approach and to go beyond. While Maryland is currently positioned as one of the leading environmental solution marketplaces in the country, we all will benefit from states racing to compete for the top spot of environmental commitments and innovation as opposed to a race to the bottom of minimum commitments.
The blueprint of adopting forward-thinking policies, encouraging innovative partnerships, and unleashing all possible outcomes-based payment streams – public, private, and philanthropic – will enable us to move further, faster.
Now is the time to build the supply of watershed-scale, outcomes-driven, investment-ready environmental initiatives to meet the growing demand from private and public entities for bold, high-quality solutions that produce results. We can and should promote projects with multiple benefits to optimize the expenditure of public dollars and return on investment for private capital.
Whether it is a solution set or financing vehicle which Quantified Ventures has a lot of experience with – such as natural infrastructure, conservation agriculture, reforestation, Environmental Impact Bonds, Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, or ecosystem service markets – or some novel approach, the key is getting the solution deployed and replicating what works on a larger scale.
If we try new things, measure what works, and pay for outcomes instead of practices we can efficiently re-allocate resources to those opportunities that produce the greatest good for our environment and underserved communities.
Quantified Ventures is pleased to have supported the Maryland Conservation Finance Act and thanks the representatives that moved it from vision to reality. The legislation was led by Senator Sarah Elfreth, Delegate Regina Boyce, and Delegate Sarah Love and by co-sponsors Senator Jim Rosapepe, Delegate Dana Stein, Delegate Kumar Barve, Delegate Mary Lehman, Senate Guy Guzzone, Senator Will Smith, and Senator Katie Fry Hester. Tim Male and his colleagues at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center, along with John Griffin and the Chesapeake Conservancy team, played key roles in advancing the legislation.