Environmental Finance Center at Syracuse University selected to provide technical assistance to new Sustainable Communities program

The Environmental Finance Center at Syracuse University (EFC-SU) will be providing technical assistance to New York State’s Environmental Facilities Corporation for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Pilot Technical Assistance Program. The program is part of the recently formed HUD-DOT-EPA Sustainable Communities Partnership. New York is one of three states chosen by the EPA to participate in this pilot project. The EPA announced the pilot program participants at the New Partnership for Livable Communities Conference earlier this month in Seattle.

New York State's unique relationship with the EFC-SU presents an ideal opportunity for cooperation and partnership in achieving common goals. The EFC-SU, an affiliated center of the Syracuse Center of Excellence, will work with the NYS Environmental Facilities Corporation (NYSEFC), which is able to provide incentives to encourage funding towards more sustainable water and wastewater infrastructure investments. These incentives include adjustments to project priority-setting systems, voluntary state set-asides, and strategic use of subsidies.

The pilot program will provide technical assistance to New York, California and Maryland to modify their existing Clean Water SRF programs to ensure their state water infrastructure investments are used to promote more sustainable investments.