Feasibility Study - Finance

Ryan Hamilton - ryanejhamilton@gmail.com

Intro/Background

• What's your research about? Put a quick summary here for others

Just wanted to start by listing a few elements from our first meeting that i will work to incorporate into my research and writing: UNIVERSAL MULTI-STAKEHOLDER LANGUAGE; PROCESS & RESULTS PARITY; LOCALITY OF IMPLEMENTATION.

well, i see my research focoused around how to build the right financial framework through a matrix (perhaps) of where money comes in, goes out, and through a system ('system' can mean home, office building, neighborhood, city, etc.)

how to incorporate full Three E paradigm to financial decisions, opportunities, etc.

from a finance perspective, i would see the ideal ecocity as having total transparency of the flow of financial resources in and out and through the system, made accessible through wireless real time technologies/applications, and made available to all stakeholders (public agencies of govt, private or public businesses, nonprofits, communities/residents/workers, etc.) at various levels based on disclosure and confidentiality parameters.  so, empower governments, businesses, citizens etc. to understand how good/bad their infrastructure is performing, how their investments are performing, how much co2 is my city creating/sequestering/etc., coupled with educational resources and economic/social incentives to improve of the results of that performance.

Use case studies to highlight a few successful/innovative/creative urban based real estate development projects and the financial instruments and mechanisms that funded them, along with the process of how all the stakeholders were involved, and if/how that stakeholder involvement process informed the conditions of finance.

Will aim to highlight things like new debt and equity instruments that incentivize green real estate; real time performance monitoring technologies; trends in SRI; economies of carbon trading and sequestration; intl economies surrounding water desalinization, purification, distribution; CSR and corporate reporting.... others......

might need to highlight financial programs and structures in place in CA specifically (million solar roofs bond issue, title 24, utility rebates and incentives, big R&D contracts to lawrence lab for nanotechnology, etc.)

A. FINANCING (from the  XXX on other Wiki section)

- (Establish social/green real estate investment fund to back the development of the project.)

- Build public/private and profit/non-profit partnerships.

- Leverage potential long-term economic benefits to enlist public and governmental agencies at the local, state, national, and international levels.

- Partner with non-profit affordable housing organizations to promote affordability.

- Leverage Califia as ‘green tech-design showcase’ to enlist sponsorship from green business in the private sector.

- (Host ‘Clean Tech Open’ style design competitions for solutions to all major facets of Califia design.)

- (Leverage potential of a “Green World Expo” style event to build infrastructure and promote development.)

- Promote innovative local and community-based financing and social capital programs.

- (Initiate presale of housing units to social network established community members.)

- Advance social justice rooted in shared equity.

• Direction you want to take the research/paper

I will aim to write no more than 2-3 concise pages for inclusion in the Position Paper.

Contact Database

• Internet Links

Friends of the Earth Green Investment Project, http://foe.org/camps/intl/corpacct/wallstreet/index.html

BankTrack

'a network of  civil society organisations and individuals tracking the operations of the private financial sector (commercial banks, investors, insurance companies, pension funds) and its effect on people and the planet.'; http://www.banktrack.org/

Based in Utrecht, Netherlands

Excellent 'Resource' section with FI profiles, dodgy deals, documents, videos, etc.

United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative; http://www.unepfi.org; 'UNEP FI is a global partnership between UNEP and the financial sector. Over 160 institutions, including banks, insurers and fund managers, work with UNEP to understand the impacts of environmental and social considerations on financial performance.'

This is an entirely voluntary initiative, participation requirements are few.

US based Banks to Watch:

http://www.newresourcebank.com (New Resource Bank, San Francisco)

http://www.eco-bank.com (ShoreBank Pacific, Ilwaco WA)

http://www.wainwrightbank.com (Wainwright Bank, Boston)

The Equator Principles

http://www.equator-principles.com/

Ten leading international banks launched the Equator Principles (EPs) in June 2003. These Principles commit adopting banks to follow the environmental and social procedures and guidelines of the International Finance Corporation (part of the World Bank) when lending to big projects like dams and oil pipelines.

As of September 2007, 53 banks, which arrange over 80% of the world's project loans, have adopted the Equator Principles, which have fast become the industry standard for addressing social and environmental impacts of projects.

Corporate Sunshine Working Group

http://www.corporatesunshine.org/index.html

The Corporate Sunshine Working Group (CSWG) is an alliance of investors, environmental organizations, unions and public interest groups working to enforce and expand Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) corporate social and environmental disclosure requirements.

Case-Study Analysis

• Internet Links

Efficiency Exercise:

How does efficiency apply to the field of finance?

Green Scissors (http://www.greenscissors.org)

Since 1994, the Green Scissors Campaign, led by Friends of the Earth, Taxpayers for Common Sense and U.S. Public Interest Research Group, has been working with Congress and the Administration to end environmentally harmful and wasteful spending. Working to breach party lines, the Green Scissors Campaign has helped cut more the $26 billion in environmental wasteful programs from the federal budget.

Other thoughts -

Public disclosure can lead to increased community empowerment, better corporate accountability, increased management attention to social issues and ultimately, improved environmental and social performance. By integrating this information into the realm of mandatory financial reporting, social data will be more readily available to investors and subjected to the same types of rigor, enforcement and verification afforded financial reporting.

General Notes