The Environmental Markets Conference (EMC)—a national networking and collaboration event connecting mitigation, conservation, and restoration markets—has been serving the industry since its inception in 1997. This year, GreenVest had the privilege to present and lead two important panels during the 2024 annual conference.
Matt Bouadana, Director of Environmental Markets, led a panel called 404 Solutions for Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Mitigation. The panel included Martin McHugh, Director of Regulatory Affairs at Groundwater & Environmental Services, Inc., and Ted Tomasi, PhD, Managing Principal at Integral Consulting, Inc. Recognizing that the prospect of addressing Natural Resource Damages (NRD) is generally approached with trepidation due to the complexity of assessment process under the Federal Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) Program, the variability of state programs, and past “mega-case” examples, Matt explained how many NRD matters are of a size and circumstance that present opportunities for collaborative settlement.
Matt and guests discussed the vital role played by private sector organizations to resolve NRD by offering innovative restoration solutions, crediting methodologies for early restoration, negotiation support, and contracting efficiencies to implement restoration-based injury remedies while leveraging private sector speed and efficiencies, which benefit responsible parties and all stakeholders. The panel discussed how the private sector can leverage its compensatory mitigation experience to increase the rate and number of successful settlements using the novel tools and strategies—such as NRD Banking, liability transfer, supplemental environmental projects (SEPs), and public-private partnerships (P3s)—they’ve helped develop. These same strategies and experience, the panel demonstrated, can also be applied to a range of emerging environmental market opportunities to create additional successful outcomes.
Brett Berkley, Senior Vice President, and Meg Wickless, Project Development Manager, led a presentation and panel called Mobilizing Funding for Climate Resiliency. They were joined by Liam O’Meara, President of Environmental Quality Resources; Tom Coale, Partner at Perry, White, Ross, & Jacobson; Brad Rogers, JD, MEM, Executive Director of South Baltimore Gateway Partnership; Jeff Fretwell, Director of Maryland Department of the Environment’s Water Infrastructure Financing Administration; and Jesse Delph, Senior Project Officer at Maryland Department of Emergency Management.
Their presentation focused on the unprecedented amounts of funding to implement nature-based solutions that generate ecosystem and community resilience. The passing of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, providing more than $60 Billion over 5 years, and the Inflation Reduction Act, providing more than $40 Billion over 10 years, has made a historic investment in the environmental space. The presentation discussed how to efficiently and effectively deploy the large amount of federal funding entering the market to achieve near term ecosystem and community resilience outcomes in real time. Beholden to performance guarantees, timelines, and cash flow considerations, private sector firms are uniquely motivated to use innovative and efficient restoration techniques that yield durable outcomes and support long-term success. This panel discussed how the private sector drives innovation while providing capacity, capability, experience, and expertise to deliver high quality, long-lasting projects, presenting the Middle Branch Resiliency Initiative as a case study of this practice.
Both panels illustrated the significant value the private sector provides. The capabilities and unique posture of private firms in the industry supports out-of-the-box thinking and unprecedented fundraising capacity for both natural resource mitigation and community resilience. Thank you to EMC for having us, and to Matt, Brett, and Meg for showcasing some of GreenVest’s thought leadership!
