Denver, Colorado, April 3, 2024 – Triple Bottom Line Foundation (TBL Fund), a national 501c3 nonprofit community development financial institution (CDFI), has received an award from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) for deploying innovative decarbonization financing solutions that go beyond current market practices.
TBL Fund received an award through the DOE’s Better Buildings Challenge for innovative green financing practices tailored to the multifamily affordable housing (MFAH) properties. Nationwide, there is a lack of financiers who understand energy financing (vs. traditional debt) which disproportionately impacts the MFAH market (a historically underserved market). To increase MFAH properties’ access to green solutions, TBL Fund provides a full suite of low-cost financing solutions, including Bridge Financing, Power Purchase Agreements, Energy Performance Contracts, Energy-as-a-Service, Leases, Tax Equity, and more.
“Financial Allies in the Better Buildings Challenge are industry leaders in financing energy efficiency and decarbonization. As a winner of a Climate Finance Innovator award, TBL Fund has demonstrated an innovative pathway to finance decarbonization that other organizations can learn from. Congratulations to this year’s winners,” said Carolyn Snyder, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Buildings and Industry at the U.S. Department of Energy.
“Serving the multifamily affordable housing niche market, in itself, distinguishes TBL Fund from other lenders,” said Ravi Malhotra, TBL Fund’s Founder and President. “This is a complex market and few lenders have cultivated the expertise to take it on. But we take our work several yards further by braiding our financial offerings with other resources, like rebates, grant funds, and tax credits. This means we can facilitate high-impact projects that include solar and storage, beneficial electrification, etc., but also that we’re uniquely prepared to take advantage of all of the new funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”
TBL Fund has been exploring resources like the expanded solar and storage Investment Tax Credit, the DOE’s new Home Energy Rebate Program funds, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, and others, to determine how it can leverage them to equitably benefit LI households. It recently started offering bridge financing so that its clients could get their projects off the ground that they could repay once the various federal incentives were paid to the project.
About TBL Fund
TBL Fund (www.tblfund.org) provides technical assistance and financing to drive energy efficiency and renewable energy (EERE) improvements for households living in multifamily affordable housing (MFAH) and disadvantaged communities (DAC). It provides customized solutions to its customers. To support and scale its efforts, TBL Fund collaborates with ICAST (International Center for Appropriate and Sustainable Technology), its fiscal sponsor (www.icastusa.org).