G4. _ Community financing
The Perennial Farming Initiative (PFI) has started a program, Restore California, in which participating restaurants add an optional “1 percent for healthy soil” surcharge to customer tabs. PFI has already signed 30 restaurants up for the surcharge; if 1 percent of the state’s restaurants follow suit, the group estimates it could generate $10 million per year in funding for healthy soils.
In Ashland, more than 250 households volunteered to add a $4.00 monthly surcharge to their power bills to help fund the Solar Pioneer I project, which put arrays on buildings at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Southern Oregon University, and the Civic Center.
The CarbonCoop, in Manchester England, has launched a $550,000 crowdfunded project to expand the People Powered Retrofit program, which provides training for contractors and a one-stop process for upgrading residences to increase their energy efficiency. The shares pay up to 5% interest, and there’s a 30% tax break on the income. (This is rather like BlocPower’s crowdfunded project in the US, but local.)
Seeds for the Sol, a non-profit grassroots organization in Corvallis Oregon, uses four to five year interest free loans from community members to fund energy efficiency and solar projects for non-profits and low income residents. (It also guarantees the loans against losses.)
See also the local offsets projects in B1.7 Energy efficiency financing.