LISC, Enterprise Community Partners and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York have published What's Possible: Investing NOW for Prosperous, Sustainable Neighborhoods. With contributions from LISC green and financing experts, the volume is a timely and crucial guidebook to equitable green investing and community development and especially timely on the heels of the historic $20 billion in federal investment to expand access to clean energy and climate solutions.

By Madeline del Carmen Fraser Cook, Senior Vice President, Community Building and Resilient Solutions

In her chapter from What’s Possible: Investing NOW for Prosperous, Sustainable Neighborhoods, LISC’s Madeline del Carmen Fraser Cook, who also co-edited the book, explores the imperative of authentic community engagement in the work of supporting historically underinvested places to become more energy efficient and climate resilient. It’s a process that demands insight, bona fide listening and what she describes as “working at the speed of trust.”

LISC partner GRID Alternatives has been awarded a $249,800,000 Solar for All grant from the EPA to advance renewable and clean energy sources for affordable housing communities across the country. “The grant is an incredible boon to the movement to decarbonize homes and lower energy costs that burden millions of everyday Americans,” said Michael T. Pugh, president and CEO of LISC.

LISC is one of five organizations leading Power Forward Communities, a new coalition investing in green housing and jobs to support economic opportunity and climate resilience. Today, the EPA awarded the coalition $2 billion to implement a decarbonization strategy that also lifts up under-resourced communities—making housing more affordable, mitigating climate impacts and improving local health.

Extreme weather events can cause devastating property damage and economic loss. With a $500,000 grant from The Allstate Foundation, LISC will help six Houston nonprofit organizations better manage the impact of natural disasters on vulnerable communities—and help protect the regional economy in the process.

Next month, LISC and Enterprise Community Partners will release “What’s Possible: Investing NOW for Prosperous, Sustainable Neighborhoods,” an urgent collection of essays on the intersection of community development and climate resilience.