Mixing Asset Building with Energy Efficiency: A Recipe for Financial and Environmental Sustainability

Author(s): Andrea Levere, President, Corporation for Enterprise Development

The growing connection between energy efficiency and savings is just one of many integrated approaches that are defining the future of social policy. This issue of Community Development Investment Review speaks directly to a new partnership between energy efficiency and asset-building that is producing concrete opportunities to increase our stock of affordable housing, build the financial resilience of low-income families, and promote environmental sustainability. It is particularly promising because unlike many other new approaches, we have the technical tools and programmatic knowledge to execute this approach successfully, a policy environment that is becoming more friendly, and growing interest from the private sector to help bring this strategy to scale. At the same time, the promise and potential of these two strategies are undervalued in the marketplace of social change, which makes the opportunities for impact even greater.