Written by Zoe Banks

What do you picture when you imagine working at a startup? Maybe you see heavy workloads for a small number of workers, hectic schedules, tight budgets, all in a dusty garage in Silicon Valley. Maybe you imagine once monthly massages, weekly ultimate frisbee, shared workspace, and free lunch on Mondays. You wouldn’t be wrong! And while anyone who has worked at a startup before can agree that the culture can be chaotic, here at Raise Green, the good (virtual) company makes it a whole lot easier to push through the tough times - and have a good one while you’re at it.

So, what does that actually look like? As you’d expect, this year is a bit different than our usual. We aren’t gathering in Somerville around a conference table with our coffees, chatting about the unpredictable New England weather. Instead, similarly to many other businesses today, all employees at Raise Green are working remotely, scattered throughout the country across 3 different time zones. 

We may be distant in location but the alignment in our passions and goals allows us to stay close. So let’s dive into what usually goes down at Raise Green during a work day, shall we?

POV: You’re in San Francisco, CA. It's 8:55 am on a Monday morning. You’ve just finished breakfast, grabbed your coffee, and finally got yourself to sit down at your desk and start your work day.

**9 am** - It’s go time. Coffee in hand, us West Coasters open our computers, and set ourselves to ‘active’ on Slack, signaling to our East Coast co-workers they can finally bother us with messages and task updates. 
The team begins preparing for both individual and collaborative tasks: organizing in Asana, catching up on Slack messages with the latest climate tech updates, and reading any unread emails from coworkers or partners. 
Meanwhile, our founders have been up and running for a few hours, busy with meetings for various Techstars + ABN Amro Future of Finance accelerator and mentor programs starting as early as 4am PST. 

**10:30 am** - Daily check in begins! Each employee logs onto the daily coworking line to summarize accomplishments, incomplete tasks, and any blockers they might be facing. 
Typically run by our COO Matthew Moroney, this meeting is usually filled with high quality dad-jokes, laughs, smiles, and collaboration to start the day off on a good note. 

**12 pm** - Some of us take a lunch break, while the overly ambitious - or overly booked - employees chug along through their day. A somewhat quiet time of day for those of us on the West Coast, while those elsewhere are long into the post-lunch grind.
The Marketing Team connects on weekly campaigns and goals, meeting to strategize on how to convince developers to use crowdfunded investors rather than hedge funds. 
The originator team in and out of meetings with issuers, updating agreements and other lengthy documents along the way. 
The sales team meets to find better ways to draw attention to the power and importance of climate tech investments between various calls with current and potential investors. 
The website team meets with consultants and fellow technicians to improve user experience, analyzing the data and performance of our current technologies for better understanding. 
The founders slowly but surely get through their back-to-back meetings. (In case you’re wondering: yes, we do have to add Google Calendar reminders for our founders to take breaks to do normal human things like drinking water, eating lunch or taking a break.) 

**2 pm** - All hands on deck! The once-weekly, company-wide gathering begins. A larger than usual number of both local and international coworkers and partners log onto the call - this is the moment when new team members realize that there are a lot more people involved in this than they realized. Although this meeting only happens once a week on Mondays, it's a crucial part of our routine and success as a company. 
Our founders hit us with all updates on current offerings, behind the scenes activities, and any other exciting information. Members who are unable to make our regular meeting times have an opportunity to chime in with their own updates on the innovative work they’ve been doing. A great chance to check for updates on projects and tasks. Plus, a bit of a break from the hard work we are all putting in. 

**3 pm** - By now most of us are finished with meetings for the day and are left with any tasks we have yet to complete. Some people log onto the coworking line to collaborate and others take on tasks individually. 
With our founders being involved in the accelerator and mentor programs, there is rarely a lack of tasks for people to complete and often entails employees contributing to tasks outside of their specialty, helping out however possible. 
	
**5 pm** - This marks the end of the work day for most, while our founders and a handful of others continue to work on miscellaneous tasks that were left incomplete for the day. 
Seeing as remote work can be done from pretty much anywhere, 5 pm doesn’t always mark the end of the work day. The blessing and curse of remote work, depending on who you ask. 

And there you have it! A Day in the life at Raise Green. While a work day at this company may not seem special to most people, the collective positive attitude, work ethic, and desire for positive change makes it easy for me and my coworkers to stay passionate and remain motivated to work hard and learn more each day. 

“Onward and upward,” as our CEO Franz Hochstrasser always reminds us. That while this may just be another mark on the resume for some of us, it’s also a chance to grow and learn more about yourself and your passions. A chance to try new things, challenge yourself, and get out of your comfort zone. Holding us to high expectations, allowing us the creative freedom to bring our own solutions, suggestions, and ideas to the table, all while providing constant support and reminders that we are making a difference in this fight for a cleaner and greener future. 

At Raise Green, the alignment in the devotion and motivation in the fight for a cleaner, just, and more sustainable future is the agent for positive and impactful change. 

Want to get in on the action? We have two open positions! Check it out:

[Software Engineer](https://jobs.climatebase.org/job/36616/software-engineer/)

[Investor Marketplace associate](https://jobs.climatebase.org/job/39300/investor-marketplace-associate-raise-green-inc-remote/)


A Day in the Life at a Climate Tech Startup

<h2>What are ESG Metrics?</h2>

The use of impact metrics is skyrocketing as impact-based investing markets have quadrupled in size from 2016 to 2020 [[2]](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/02/esg-index-funds-hit-250-billion-as-us-investor-role-in-boom-grows.html). Despite rapid growth, there is still a misunderstanding of what impact metrics are and how accurately these metrics measure impact. 

Impact metrics attempt to quantify a company’s impact on issues non-financial outcomes. Examples include carbon emissions, male-female ratio in the workplace, and number of controversies surrounding a company. 

Impact metrics aim to paint a picture that financial metrics cannot, showing the full scope of a company’s social and environmental footprint. It’s easier to measure revenue or salaries, than gender diversity or persistent organic pollutants in a supply chain. As a result of that uncertainty, there are at many major metric frameworks with different impact metrics that try to quantify this footprint. The number of different impact funds, investment banks, non-profits, philanthropies, and family offices that construct their own metrics and frameworks only adds to the confusion. 

“ESG'' is the hottest phrase in finance. It’s really more a philosophy than an accounting methodology. It’s derived impact metrics are simplified into three categories: Environmental, Social, and Governance. They were first introduced in the 1960s and inflow into ESG-based funds reached $71.1 billion in the second quarter of 2020 [[2]](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/02/esg-index-funds-hit-250-billion-as-us-investor-role-in-boom-grows.html). A positive correlation exists between higher ESG rating and increased financial performance (Eccles et al. 2014, Khan et al. 2015, Friede et al. 2015), which makes sense due to an ESG score encompassing management quality and practices. Overall, ESG metrics seem to have had a positive impact on investing, allowing people to better quantify a company’s impact.

<h2>How to standardize thousands of impact metrics?</h2>

However, as we see more and more companies calculating ESGs, there is now an emerging problem of how to standardize all this data.

Many different organizations calculate ESG to provide better insight -- an “edge” -- to their investing (e.g. Bloomberg, Dow Jones, MSCI, and Sustainalytics). While these companies aim to provide similar insights, there is large variation between how each calculates this metric. For example, in the figure below we can see three ESG scores for three different companies.

<img src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iHXL5D4.nr1s/v1/1400x-1.png" alt="">

Figure 1. ESG Metric Variance in Public Companies. Widely dispersed rankings of the same companies indicate a lack of confidence for investors seeking impact outcomes (https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-05-21/esg-investing-s-good-coronavirus-crisis-is-killing-jobs)

The variation between scores in this image is concerning. The issue here is a lack of standardization in how ESGs are calculated which must be addressed, but how?

<h2>Moving towards standardization</h2>

ESG Data Standards are proposed in a paper by Cort and Esty [[1]](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1086026620945342) and suggest ESG metrics be held to three standards: 

<ui style="line-height: 2">
<li>
Methodological standards - require that all ESG data be accurate, complete, and timely. To make sure that all data meets these requirements, it should be verified by either government regulatory standards, third-party auditing, or some data vendor (MSCI, Bloomberg, etc.) 
</li>
<li>
Materiality-based - standards address the need for compatibility between company’s ESG scores, and as we saw from figure 1, there is little to no commonality in ESG metrics between companies we saw in figure 1, there is little to no commonality in ESG metrics between companies. This standard would require companies to calculate ESG scores on a consistent list of metrics and management processes using common methodological practices.
</li>
<li>
Impact data standards - focus on generating comparable data on externalized social and environmental impacts. Through normalizing what makes up ESG scores, we can create a better picture of whether a company is a net benefit or detriment to society.
</li>
</ui>

<h2>What’s next?</h2>

The current growth in sustainable investing has outgrown current ESG capabilities. For investors to continue to rely on impact metrics, these standards must be implemented through cooperation and regulation. At Raise Green, we hope that these standards allow an accurate portrayal of a company’s true financial footprint.


 This Blog is for discussion purposes only, expresses the views of Raise Green, and is not investment research. This is not investment or tax advice, and does not constitute a solicitation to sell or an offer to buy any securities. Certain information is from or links are to third party sources. Although they are believed to be reliable, we do not guarantee their accuracy, completeness or fairness. Raise Green is a licensed Funding Portal with the SEC and FINRA, and is not a Municipal Advisor. Prior to being approved to list a company on the Raise Green portal, a diligence review is completed. Prior to investing. investors must sign up for an account on the portal. Raise Green does not provide tax, accounting or legal advice. Investing in crowdfunded offerings involves risk and you should review the risks of a particular investment prior to investing. You are strongly encouraged to consult your professional advisors before investing. Go to www.raisegreen.com for additional information on services, the funding portal, regulation, and investment risks. Or, direct inquiries to info@raisegreen.com. Copyright © 2021

A Closer Look at ESG Metrics

As we begin to re-emerge from the pandemic induced shutdown of society, each one of us has an opportunity to decide: what’s next. 

Collectively, our respective answers to that question will define the future viability of life on earth. Pressing challenges of the climate crisis, wealth inequality and injustice, and threats to public health are intensifying -- they’re disproportionately hitting underserved and historically disadvantaged communities, and they’re fraying our social fabric. Whether it’s the more than half a million Americans killed from COVID, the $100 billion cost of climate-related natural disasters across the US in 2020 [1] (https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2020-us-billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disasters-historical),
 or the intensifying wave of racial violence: we need a whole-of-society mobilization to tackle these intertwined issues and address them in a way that brings everyone along.

We need solutions that accelerate faster than the pace of the problems.

President Biden has mobilized a whole-of-government approach to the climate crisis in his first 100 days in office that is driving ambitious U.S. climate progress to build global momentum going into the global climate conference this November (COP26). This morning, the U.S. federal government set an ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 50-52% below 2005 levels by 2030 [3](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/22/fact-sheet-president-biden-sets-2030-greenhouse-gas-pollution-reduction-target-aimed-at-creating-good-paying-union-jobs-and-securing-u-s-leadership-on-clean-energy-technologies/). 

Countries of the world are expected to accelerate their decarbonization by setting new carbon pollution reduction targets and a renewed effort to mobilize capital to fill the $4.6 trillion infrastructure gap by 2040 [2](https://cdn.gihub.org/outlook/live/methodology/Global+Infrastructure+Outlook+-+July+2017.pdf). The world needs to mobilize more than $1Trillion per year into climate tech to achieve the global Paris Agreement goal of keeping warming below 2 degrees C and have a chance of staying below 1.5 degrees C to avoid catastrophic impacts. The latest data shows that we’re only at about $580 billion per year [4](https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/global-landscape-of-climate-finance-2019/), but more is being done every day to turn it around [5](https://unfccc.int/news/new-financial-alliance-for-net-zero-emissions-launches#:~:text=The%20Glasgow%20Financial%20Alliance%20for,accelerate%20the%20transition%20to%20net).

These climate targets are achievable. We can do this. But we need everyone involved if we’re going to get there. Leaders from cities, states, tribal nations, businesses, colleges, and institutions of faith, culture, and healthcare across the country and the world have carried the torch on climate action over the past four years. We’re already reducing emissions, block-by-block, investment-by-investment, project-by-project, and we’re committed to achieving and exceeding America’s new target. The US accounts for 15% of global emissions, but only 4% of the global population, and we have a long way to go [6](https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions). This is the largest economic and social opportunity ever facing the world, and everyone should benefit from the transition if we do it right. Cutting U.S. emissions in half over the next decade is going to be difficult but there are multiple, viable pathways to get there and America’s non-federal actors are already putting their money where their mouths are.

We also can not wait for Federal and regulatory actions to save us -- every community can and should take immediate action today.

This ambitious climate target requires a coordinated, whole-of-society national climate strategy and cooperation to create, fund, build and run the transformative projects, policies and programs needed to reach it. Community leaders stand ready to partner with the federal government on the ambitious action, investment, and collaboration needed, and Raise Green is here to make that easier than ever.

[If you’re working on a climate project and want inclusive financing, Raise Green for it.] (https://oe.raisegreen.com/)

If you have time -- you or your organization can start a local clean energy project in your community now. We give you the tools to create, fund, build and run your project, and finance it inclusively through the [Raise Green Originator Engine](https://oe.raisegreen.com/).

If you have money -- you can invest it in real verifiable impactful projects at the local scale, backed by hard assets that provide essential services on the [Raise Green Marketplace](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/offers/offersList).

What are you waiting for?

*This Blog is for discussion purposes only, expresses the views of Raise Green, and is not investment research. This is not investment or tax advice, and does not constitute a solicitation to sell or an offer to buy any securities. Certain information is from or links are to third party sources. Although they are believed to be reliable, we do not guarantee their accuracy, completeness or fairness. Raise Green is a licensed Funding Portal with the SEC and FINRA, and is not a Municipal Advisor. Prior to being approved to list a company on the Raise Green portal, a diligence review is completed. Prior to investing. investors must sign up for an account on the portal. Raise Green does not provide tax, accounting or legal advice. Investing in crowdfunded offerings involves risk and you should review the risks of a particular investment prior to investing. You are strongly encouraged to consult your professional advisors before investing. Go to www.raisegreen.com for additional information on services, the funding portal, regulation, and investment risks. Or, direct inquiries to info@raisegreen.com. Copyright © 2021*

Earth Day Means it’s Time to Raise Green

Earth Day Blog: Earth Day Means it’s Time to Raise Green

If you wasted 60% of your income, could you still pay your bills?

In 2019 more than 60% of U.S. energy [was lost](https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=44436#) between generation at power plants and end use as electricity. Energy is inherently lost when raw materials like coal are converted to electricity, but the disparity is also due to outdated technologies, especially in coal power plants. As it turns out, older technologies use more energy to achieve the same output as modern technologies!

This is translatable to consumers’ end use as well. Referring to the loss of heat through uninsulated buildings, Amory Lovins professed that “we'd find more energy in the attics of American homes than in all the oil buried in Alaska.”

Think of Texas, where 70% of homes were [built earlier than 2000](https://cleantechnica.com/2021/02/24/heat-pumps-efficiency-key-solutions-to-texas-electricity-woes/), before buildings codes required energy-saving measures such as effective insulation. 60% of Texas homes have electric heating, and mostly use older technologies since winter storms are infrequent. But the record-low temperatures in February drove a [surge in demand](https://blog.ucsusa.org/john-rogers/polar-vortex-power-outages-6-things-to-know-about-supply-demand-and-our-electricity-future) when everyone turned their heaters on, which coincided with a strained natural gas supply, resulting in absurdly high electricity rates for Texans who couldn’t efficiently heat their homes.

There’s no shame in a family heating their home during a winter storm, but if they can install energy efficient heating that will save them money on electric bills, why wouldn’t they?

The problem is that many people can’t afford the initial costs of energy efficiency improvements, even if it will increase their energy savings and resilience to extreme weather. In the direst situations, high costs of inefficient technologies may be hindering households and businesses from saving enough money to improve them. The Biden Administration has [proposed](https://www.volts.wtf/p/the-coolest-parts-of-bidens-expansive) a large-scale infrastructure bill last week that would invest $213 billion on upgrading buildings, but that funding is not guaranteed, and communities can’t wait for congress to act.

Guess what can help with this now? Crowdfunding! At Raise Green, we reduce barriers to entry by issuing investment opportunities that allow any outside investor to buy into energy efficiency projects. Offerings on our [Marketplace](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/offers/offersList) allow communities to benefit from energy efficiency improvements almost immediately. This includes marginalized communities, who often have more inefficient technologies and thereby stand to save the most.

Energy efficiency lending and upgrades segment project costs into affordable increments, which gradually repay investors with a portion of the savings over time. That means that, upon successful repayment, everyone can benefit! We mean it when we say that Raise Green operates on a profit-for-all model. 

An exponentially growing population will undoubtedly demand more energy, but if we can harness it more efficiently, we’ll reduce energy demand and inevitably burn less fossil fuels. It’s an immediate approach that everyone can support, even if they favor the status quo! By reducing energy waste, companies and consumers can save money and the environment while enjoying the same benefits.

If you’re interested in starting your own clean energy project, Raise Green can support both the development ([Originator Engine](/originator-program)) and funding ([Marketplace](/investment-opportunities-preview)). Or if you’re interested in investing in an existing project, you can [create an investor account for free here](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/home/register). 

As always, feel free to send any questions or comments you might have to [info@raisegreen.com](mailto:info@raisegreen.com).

To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please [sign up for our email list](https://raisegreen-1.hubspotpagebuilder.com/raise-green-sign-up-to-support-climate-solutions) and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)).

*This Blog is for discussion purposes only, expresses the views of Raise Green, and is not investment research. This is not investment or tax advice, and does not constitute a solicitation to sell or an offer to buy any securities. Certain information is from or links are to third party sources. Although they are believed to be reliable, we do not guarantee their accuracy, completeness or fairness. Raise Green is a licensed Funding Portal with the SEC and FINRA, and is not a Municipal Advisor. Prior to being approved to list a company on the Raise Green portal, a diligence review is completed. Prior to investing. investors must sign up for an account on the portal. Raise Green does not provide tax, accounting or legal advice. Investing in crowdfunded offerings involves risk and you should review the risks of a particular investment prior to investing. You are strongly encouraged to consult your professional advisors before investing. Go to www.raisegreen.com for additional information on services, the funding portal, regulation, and investment risks. Or, direct inquiries to info@raisegreen.com. Copyright © 2021*

Raising Energy Efficiency: An Immediate Climate Solution

### [IBM and Raise Green Team Up to Combat Climate Change](https://newsroom.ibm.com/IBM-and-Raise-Green-Team-Up-to-Combat-Climate-Change)

**ARMONK, N.Y. and SOMERVILLE, Mass.** -- IBM (NYSE: [IBM](https://www.ibm.com/investor)) and [Raise Green](/homepage), an impact investment marketplace for clean energy projects, announced their collaboration to develop Raise Green's software solution deployed using Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud, intended to empower any entrepreneur to start their own community solar energy businesses. Today marks the rollout of the latest Beta version of the [Originator Engine](/originator-program), following the initial launch announced last year.

To help address the growing urgency of climate change, Raise Green came to IBM Global Business Services (GBS) with a need that the parties developed into the Originator Engine – a groundbreaking digital tool that customers, investors, and ecosystem partners can leverage to create, finance, build, and run new solar businesses.

"Everyone has a role to play in tackling climate change in an equitable way. Countries have committed to act, technologies are ready, and policies are moving in the right direction, but it's not happening fast enough," said Franz Hochstrasser, CEO and co-founder of Raise Green. "Raise Green is designed to empower communities tired of waiting for action on climate and social impact. IBM is helping us bring this innovation to life by designing a smooth user experience that makes starting a new business straightforward while enabling us to expand into areas beyond solar like template microgrids, energy efficiency, electric vehicle charging, urban farms, and affordable housing."

Raise Green engaged IBM GBS to help build a digital experience that would empower climate entrepreneurs to start and finance their businesses and local climate projects by removing obstacles and equipping them with tools and resources. A team of IBM design and technology specialists worked with Raise Green to co-create, develop and deploy a proof-of-concept for the Originator Engine in just eight weeks through the [IBM Garage](https://www.ibm.com/garage) – IBM's approach to fast-tracking innovation at scale, to help transform organizations from the inside out. The Originator Engine uses Red Hat OpenShift and is deployed on IBM Cloud for all of Raise Green's services. IBM Cloud is the industry's most open and secure public cloud.  

The Originator Engine combines multiple database standards, allows companies to create filings for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and offers investment opportunities through the [Raise Green Investor Marketplace](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/offers/offersList). The Originator Engine is designed to automate the process of creating and completing legal and financial documents by taking thousands of pages and converting them into streamlined and easy to use templates.  

"The collaboration between Raise Green and IBM serves as a meaningful response to the question of how to get involved in the fight against climate change," said Debbie Vavangas, Global Lead, IBM Garage. "To address the growing need for an innovative solution, Raise Green wanted to embrace cloud-based and agile methodologies which not only can accelerate the creation of a new digital experience for climate entrepreneurs but also gives Raise Green the flexibility to evolve digital capabilities for future growth."

For more information about the Originator Engine, visit https://www.raisegreen.com/

**About Raise Green**

Raise Green is the first marketplace in the U.S. for local and inclusive impact investment with verifiable and demonstrable environmental benefits. Through the platform, anyone can be an originator of their own community solar project. On Raise Green's investor marketplace, anyone (individuals and institutions) can invest in community-focused climate resilience projects across a varied range of project scales and minimum investments. Early investors in Raise Green are veterans of the renewable energy industry and project financing. Investors can derive value while at the same time creating quantifiable impacts in local communities, as well as receiving financial returns if the project is successful. 

**About IBM**

For further information about IBM Global Business Services, visit: https://www.ibm.com/services
For further information about IBM Garage visit: https://www.ibm.com/garage  

Raise Green Engages IBM to Build a Solution to Support Solar Developers and Climate Entrepreneurs

Raise Green Engages IBM to Build a Solution to Support Solar Developers

*March 18, 2020 - Matthew Moroney, COO and Co-Founder, Raise Green*

**It’s almost Spring. Although some people swim all winter, most normal people want to know if the water is warm enough before they jump in.**

![Img](https://a.storyblok.com/f/77953/1600x900/ab75747cc2/testing-the-waters.png)

### Too many good projects just aren’t getting funded.
People bring projects to Raise Green to figure out how to get funded1. Community solar, affordable housing, and agriculture project creators struggle to engage with traditional finance. They don’t have to struggle anymore.

### Crowdfunding used to be **WAY** harder to figure out if it’d work for you. 
Crowdfunding (“Reg CF”) lets you sell stock or debt for a company online. But even with the lower barriers for raising capital, Reg CF struggled to grow as rapidly as expected. In our opinion, that is primarily due to the uncertainty for project creators. They aren’t sure how to market. They want to know that if they go through the work of making the offering, there is a good chance of raising what they need - whether that’s $250k, $1M, or $5M. 

### If I build it, will they come?
The government acknowledged these complexities with a significant new rule change on Monday. The SEC’s “harmonization” rule which went into effect on Monday, March 15, 2021 means that **companies who are considering crowdfunding capital can now “Test the Waters.”** That means you can list your project and start asking the crowd how much they would invest.

 These “indications of interest” **do not obligate friends, family, and strangers to invest.** No money can be collected. But in a sense, these indications give you a sense of how warm the water is if you did go live for investment on Raise Green. 

### The complexities of “capital formation” (i.e., raising green) are overwhelming. 
The world of “private equity” and “506(d) exempt securities offerings” is just too big of a barrier (and mouthful) for people without nuanced legal knowledge and industry connections. That’s too bad. This limits innovation, climate resilience, and equity. So many projects that would have a powerful local impact just aren’t getting built. 

### What does it take to get my Testing the Waters listing up on Raise Green?
A bit of elbow grease, but not as much as you’d think. Raise Green sees Testing the Waters as a really effective way to help originators test their idea, sharpen their story, and refine their marketing strategies. 

Our basic requirements are:

- ##### A vision for a positive impact on the planet and its people!
- ##### A simple legal entity like an LLC or C Corporation (easily created online for around $100 in a day or two)2
- ##### A business plan3
- ##### A background check that we conduct.
- ##### And a willingness to fail.



### All in all, Testing the Waters can help make your project or company vision clearer for yourself and the crowd.
This new regulation doesn’t make it easier to create, fund, build, and run your project. However, it will help you gauge market interest, quickly refine your narrative and pivot your approach if necessary. The insight you gain from a “Testing the Waters” approach tests your marketing strategy, your business model, and lets you discuss the project with real live potential investors.

Value is created not just from seeing how many people would invest and how much they might put in. Almost more valuable is the feedback you get from potential investors and advisors who will be exposed to your project. 

The water feels warm.

**Schedule a meeting today with Jackie, Matt, or Franz** -- and we’ll tell you more. If you have those simple requirements, we could get an “indications of interest” for your project live before Earth day!4

***

### The new section of the Securities Act5
The “testing the waters” provision is enabled by a short new Section of the Securities Act6, Section 227.206. This allows potential project creators (“Issuers”) to “Solicit Interest” before filing an offering statement. For all intents and purposes, these are considered securities offerings, just without the exchange of capital. Issuers can communicate orally or in writing to potential investors about the interest level of their contemplated offering. 

**No money can be accepted when ‘testing the waters’.** Moreover, **no offer to buy the security can be accepted** until a formal offering is conducted with a crowdfunding portal. Note, that these communications need to be included in that formal offering, so that investors can receive all the information and disclosures that got sent out. 

Please email matt@raisegreen.com if you’d like to discuss the implications of this change or other portions of the harmonization rules. There’s a lot of potential here we’d like to explore with you.

To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please [sign up for our email list](https://raisegreen-1.hubspotpagebuilder.com/raise-green-sign-up-to-support-climate-solutions) and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)).

*This Blog is for discussion purposes only, expresses the views of Raise Green, and is not investment research. This is not investment or tax advice, and does not constitute a solicitation to sell or an offer to buy any securities. Certain information is from or links are to third party sources. Although they are believed to be reliable, we do not guarantee their accuracy, completeness or fairness. Raise Green is a licensed Funding Portal with the SEC and FINRA, and is not a Municipal Advisor. Prior to being approved to list a company on the Raise Green portal, a diligence review is completed. Prior to investing. investors must sign up for an account on the portal. Raise Green does not provide tax, accounting or legal advice. Investing in crowdfunded offerings involves risk and you should review the risks of a particular investment prior to investing. You are strongly encouraged to consult your professional advisors before investing. Go to www.raisegreen.com for additional information on services, the funding portal, regulation, and investment risks. Or, direct inquiries to info@raisegreen.com. Copyright © 2021*

** 1. Over 140 people have brought their climate projects to Raise Green considering a Regulation Crowdfunding offering for capital. ** 
**2. We have an enterprise partner that we’re glad to connect you with who can help provide incorporation services for a fixed fee.** 
**3. Small Business Administration guidance on writing your business plan: https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/write-your-business-plan** 
**4. Earth Day causes lots of hubbub as it should. We like to focus on the days and months after to keep up that momentum year round. Stay tuned for announcements of our first “indications of interest” demo day in late April.** 
**5. This is not legal, accounting, tax or financial advice. I am not a lawyer and do not intend to become one. My views are my own. Consult legal counsel before conducting any securities offering.** 
**6. SEC adopting release in Federal Register vol 86 no 9: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/14/2020-24749/facilitating-capital-formation-and-expanding-investment-opportunities-by-improving-access-to-capital **

It’s almost Spring. Although some people swim all winter, most normal people want to know if the water is warm enough before they jump in.

Hot or Cold? Testing the Waters for Equity Crowdfunding

Hot or Cold? Testing the Waters for Crowdfunding

If there was ever a national holiday for equitable and inclusive financing, it could be today! 
Imagine what we could achieve if we could fight both climate change and inequality at the same time, by training, financing, and empowering our communities with clean energy and climate resilience.
 
That day is today.
 
#### Before, a neighborhood leader could only raise enough crowdfunding to power a few buildings (like a town hall, school, church, non-profit, or small business). 
#### Now, a neighborhood leader can raise enough to power a whole community!
Up until 2016, only the top 10% or so of Americans were allowed to invest in most private companies. That technically changed with the finalization of crowdfunding rules making it possible for anyone to invest in small businesses and startups. But until today, crowdinvesting platforms like the [Raise Green Investor Marketplace](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/offers/offersList) were hindered by rules that prevented rapid growth. 
 
Today (March 15, 2021) marks the implementation of **favorable new crowdinvesting regulations** by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Five years after their inception, crowdfunding regulations have finally aligned with innovative potential, making it easier for anyone to raise capital and invest in impactful community-scale companies and climate solutions. 
 ![Img](https://a.storyblok.com/f/77953/1200x675/25cc0bf65d/post_-rule-changes-wide-2.png) 
Crowdinvesting, also known as “regulation crowdfunding,” represents an opportunity for the 90% of Americans who aren’t rich (“non-accredited investors” or “retail investors”) to have more of the same types of investment opportunities as the wealthy (“accredited investors”). These retail investors account for upwards of $17 trillion in wealth, but that’s only [24% of total U.S. wealth](https://dqydj.com/accredited-investors-in-america/). It also gives clean energy entrepreneurs a way to raise money that never existed before! More than ever, an organized group of dedicated project Originators and impact investors can not only stop the game, now they can change the world.
 
The [new amendments](https://www.sec.gov/corpfin/facilitating-capital-formation-secg) significantly expand the size and scope of Raise Green’s capabilities, specifically: 
 
**Increased maximum raise limits for offerings** 
Previously the most that could be raised in a year was $1.07 million. Now crowdinvesting offerings can raise up to $ 5 million per year. This opens the door for bigger projects to benefit from crowdfunding, even small utility-scale projects, microgrids and larger community solar infrastructure. 
In allowing for more project offerings or larger sizes, crowdinvestors simultaneously have more opportunities to choose from! Even better, larger projects can often harness lower cost estimates with economies of scale. This often bolsters their economic efficiency and enhances value creation, all the while increasing clean energy benefits for people and the planet!
 
**Removed investment limits for accredited investors** 
When [signing up for a Raise Green account](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/home/register), non-accredited investors are asked to estimate their net-worth as a means of determining the maximum amount they’re allowed to invest in offerings. The new regulation opens up more investment potential, since it weighs net-worth against annual income and uses the greater amount to determine maximums. While still maintaining investor protections, they can now have even more impact! 
 
The amendments remove the limit that accredited investors can put into a project. Clean energy projects can now receive larger investments from institutions and organizations, thereby increasing the feasibility of larger projects hitting their goals. This is a momentous shift towards ‘**blended capital**’: a powerful mix of philanthropic investment, donor-advised funds, program-related investment, and traditional private equity and retail impact investors, When all of these different types of investors get the same investment terms in the same offering, that allows for a more equal investment landscape. 
 
**Allowance for prospective project issuers to ‘test-the-waters’ ** 
Up until now, there were strict rules against advertising a regulation crowdfunding offering before it went live. But now project issuers are allowed to communicate with investors beforehand! They can circulate promotional materials and measure the overall level of interest, which is good to know before going through the entire process of preparing an offering. Companies and climate entrepreneurs can present a potential project offering and measure the interest and feedback thereafter. With these amendments, initiating funding for community-level climate solutions will now be appropriately collaborative and transparent!
 
**Permission to use a special purpose Crowdfunding Vehicles (SPVs)** 
Regulation Crowdfunding issuers can now establish an SPV, an entity whose sole purpose is directly acquiring, holding, and disposing of securities in one or more offerings. This means that now any privately held company can raise capital without adding hundreds or even thousands of individual investors to their capitalization table, thus easing the administrative challenges of conducting a crowdfunding raise. SPVs are often used in project finance to manage risk, and will be an interesting area of financial innovation in the crowdinvesting space. By enabling the use of crowdfunding SPVs, the new rule requires that investors receive the same economic exposure, voting power, legal rights, and the same disclosures as if they invested directly in the company itself. This new option may make it more likely and potentially less risky for companies when they decide how best to offer investment opportunities through crowdfunding.
 
![Img](https://a.storyblok.com/f/77953/1200x675/6bde8f14fa/post_-funding-the-fight-wide.png)
 
Now is a better time than ever to start your own green job, and Raise Green can support both the development ([Originator Engine](/originator-program)) and funding ([Marketplace](/investment-opportunities-preview)). Or if you’re interested in investing in an existing project, you can [create an investor account for free here](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/home/register). 

As always, feel free to send any questions or comments you might have to [info@raisegreen.com](mailto:info@raisegreen.com).

To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please [sign up for our email list](https://raisegreen-1.hubspotpagebuilder.com/raise-green-sign-up-to-support-climate-solutions) and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)).

*This Blog is for discussion purposes only, expresses the views of Raise Green, and is not investment research. This is not investment or tax advice, and does not constitute a solicitation to sell or an offer to buy any securities. Certain information is from or links are to third party sources. Although they are believed to be reliable, we do not guarantee their accuracy, completeness or fairness. Raise Green is a licensed Funding Portal with the SEC and FINRA, and is not a Municipal Advisor. Prior to being approved to list a company on the Raise Green portal, a diligence review is completed. Prior to investing. investors must sign up for an account on the portal. Raise Green does not provide tax, accounting or legal advice. Investing in crowdfunded offerings involves risk and you should review the risks of a particular investment prior to investing. You are strongly encouraged to consult your professional advisors before investing. Go to www.raisegreen.com for additional information on services, the funding portal, regulation, and investment risks. Or, direct inquiries to info@raisegreen.com. Copyright © 2021*

If there was ever a national holiday for equitable and inclusive financing, it could be March 15!

New Rules: New Opportunities for People to Power Communities

New Crowdfunding Rules New Opportunities for People to Power Communities

Janet Yellen was recently sworn-in as the first female US Treasury Secretary, with bipartisan support! This puts her at the forefront of the world’s largest economy.

As another first, Secretary Yellen has pledged to set up a [team to focus on climate change](https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2021/01/19/yellen-treasury-department-climate-change-460408) within the Treasury. We’re optimistic about this high-level recognition of the real threats posed by the climate crisis, as well as the opportunities for reevaluating financial regulations to encourage a sustainable economy.

![Img](https://a.storyblok.com/f/77953/1200x675/9cc4e4a67b/yellen-clean-energy-climate-impact-investing.png)

For example, tax incentives already play a meaningful role in solar project development. It was also the focus of [our last blog](/blog/solar-tax-credits-and-tax-equity-markets). The current investment tax credit system is needlessly restrictive, hindering the feasibility of smaller community-scale solar projects. Yellen can address this by pushing for refundable extensions for tax credits, or allowing for a cash grant to be made in lieu of tax credits for community-scale projects.

Financial regulations can and **should** compel investments that mitigate climate change, and can also help protect investors by requiring publicly traded companies to report the climate-related material risks to their businesses. These risks come from physical threats to supply chains and infrastructure, and transitional risks as the world moves past a fossil fuel based economy and further toward one powered on clean energy. Yellen’s climate team is a good start domestically, but we really need an all-out mobilization on clean energy finance!

As the World Bank’s largest shareholder, the Treasury can apply pressure towards essential goals, such as divesting from the fossil fuel industry. Domestically, Yellen is now one of the foremost players who can champion and raise green infrastructure and clean energy investments, for both short term relief and longer term recovery efforts. The Treasury can move federal capital through community development block grants to assist states and cities in rebuilding for energy efficiency and consumer savings while creating jobs. Evergreen Action’s [Clean Jumpstart Plan](https://www.dataforprogress.org/clean-jumpstart) calls for a $1.5 trillion investment in state-run relief and 21 federal programs that can help to stimulate and rebuild the economy. 

This effort doesn’t need to be a brute use of power. Rather, the US Treasury could use its influence to be a productive force with demonstrative results for domestic departments and the rest of the world to follow. This is leading not just by the example of power, but by the power of example.

It’s also crucial that regulatory incentives shouldn’t overlook disadvantaged communities, who are often the most vulnerable to climate change. Energy efficient homes should be accessible for all demographics, and solar infrastructure should be [integrated on a local level](https://electrek.co/2020/12/03/the-us-would-save-billions-if-local-solar-powered-just-25-of-homes/). The Treasury can consolidate its efforts by creating a national green bank that fosters private capital investment, making climate action projects more accessible for local communities.

This is our mission at Raise Green! We act as an intermediary between communities wanting to organize into collective action by creating and financing their own climate solutions, and individuals and businesses who financially support those efforts. Imagine what we can do together with the full support of the world’s largest economy!

![Img](https://a.storyblok.com/f/77953/1200x675/31589fe82d/crowdfund-impact-investing-on-raise-green)

If you’re interested in starting your own clean energy project, Raise Green can support both the development ([Originator Engine](/originator-program)) and funding ([Marketplace](/investment-opportunities-preview)). Or if you’re interested in investing in an existing project, you can [create an investor account for free here](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/home/register). 

As always, feel free to send any questions or comments you might have to [info@raisegreen.com](mailto:info@raisegreen.com).

To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please [sign up for our email list](https://raisegreen.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=11082e3b065fd4366639c43b6&id=7b4c5a3935) and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)).

*This Blog is for discussion purposes only, expresses the views of Raise Green, and is not investment research. This is not investment or tax advice, and does not constitute a solicitation to sell or an offer to buy any securities. Certain information is from or links are to third party sources. Although they are believed to be reliable, we do not guarantee their accuracy, completeness or fairness. Raise Green is a licensed Funding Portal with the SEC and FINRA, and is not a Municipal Advisor. Prior to being approved to list a company on the Raise Green portal, a diligence review is completed. Prior to investing. investors must sign up for an account on the portal. Raise Green does not provide tax, accounting or legal advice. Investing in crowdfunded offerings involves risk and you should review the risks of a particular investment prior to investing. You are strongly encouraged to consult your professional advisors before investing. Go to www.raisegreen.com for additional information on services, the funding portal, regulation, and investment risks. Or, direct inquiries to info@raisegreen.com. Copyright © 2021*


Fostering Clean Energy Investment with Proper Regulations

You may have heard of solar and other clean energy tax credits, as they’ve been a prominent incentive driving investment in U.S. clean energy. In fact, [according to the Solar Energy Industries Association](https://www.seia.org/initiatives/solar-investment-tax-credit-itc), since the Investment Tax Credit was enacted back in 2006, the solar industry in the U.S. has grown by a whopping 10,000%. And thanks to a [recent policy extension](https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2020/12/solar-investment-tax-credit-extended-at-26-for-two-additional-years/), solar project developers are allowed to deduct 26% of project costs from their federal taxes for projects in 2021 and 2022, a continuation of this policy that drives significant growth and can make new projects feasible.

The catch is that solar tax credits are mostly claimed by a small set of wealthy players and investment bankers, who have segmented the benefits into a tax equity market:

“Tax equity is an investment category that has arisen thanks to tax credit policies, where a third party totally unrelated to the project itself provides some of the project capital simply to harvest the tax benefits.” - [Rob Day, Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/robday/2021/12/27/who-will-actually-be-able-to-use-the-renewable-tax-credits/?sh=2dd13cdf1038).

Since the tax equity market is made up of a concentrated group of large investors, it's often difficult for smaller scale projects to benefit from it. Smaller solar projects can be just as feasible when they’re able to capture the tax credit, but they’re often overlooked because they inevitably have less gross profit than larger projects. Economic uncertainty from COVID-19 has further increased the [reluctance of tax equity investors](https://www.seia.org/sites/default/files/2020-11/Nov2020-SEIA-Tax-Equity-Brief.pdf). 

We don’t think wealthy investment bankers should have the final say, which is why Raise Green is innovating in an area called a “tax equity partnership flip.” We help connect solar project owners (“Sponsors”) with our dedicated mission-driven tax equity investors, who are standing by to help partner with community project developers and monetize the federal tax benefits. Once they harness these savings, majority ownership of the solar project flips back to the Sponsor.  

![Img](https://a.storyblok.com/f/77953/1578x595/80ca7deb02/solar-tax-credits-and-tax-equity-with-raise-green.png)

This isn’t just a theory. Our Founders actually [conducted one of the smallest tax-equity partnership flips in U.S. history](https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilyeoh/2019/10/26/sustainable-investing-heres-what-millennials-need-to-know-in-the-u-s/?sh=759ce9791e8a) on a community-scale solar project in New Haven, Connecticut back in 2019.

Without getting too deep into solar project finance, Raise Green essentially helps create local ownership! Rather than being bound to a bank for the entire term of the project, ownership ultimately stays within the community, while still benefiting from tax equity savings.

It seems silly that project owners have to complicate their financing around an additional outside investor, in order to qualify for a policy that’s supposed to make the projects more accessible. This is why we’ve helped develop and recommend a variety of proposed solutions, including making incentives available simply as direct payments like the 1603 cash-grant program under the 2009 Recovery Act, or instituting a refundable tax credit. But until Congress takes action to change the law, Raise Green is here to help navigate the tax equity market and unlock access for communities and small businesses! 

If you’re interested in starting your own clean energy project, Raise Green can support both the development ([Originator Engine](/originator-program)) and funding ([Marketplace](/investment-opportunities-preview)). Or if you’re interested in investing in an existing project, you can [create an investor account for free here](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/home/register). 

As always, feel free to send any questions or comments you might have to [info@raisegreen.com](mailto:info@raisegreen.com).

To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please [sign up for our email list](https://raisegreen.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=11082e3b065fd4366639c43b6&id=7b4c5a3935) and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)).

*This Blog is for discussion purposes only, expresses the views of Raise Green, and is not investment research. This is not investment or tax advice, and does not constitute a solicitation to sell or an offer to buy any securities. Certain information is from or links are to third party sources. Although they are believed to be reliable, we do not guarantee their accuracy, completeness or fairness. Raise Green is a licensed Funding Portal with the SEC and FINRA, and is not a Municipal Advisor. Prior to being approved to list a company on the Raise Green portal, a diligence review is completed. Prior to investing. investors must sign up for an account on the portal. Raise Green does not provide tax, accounting or legal advice. Investing in crowdfunded offerings involves risk and you should review the risks of a particular investment prior to investing. You are strongly encouraged to consult your professional advisors before investing. Go to www.raisegreen.com for additional information on services, the funding portal, regulation, and investment risks. Or, direct inquiries to info@raisegreen.com. Copyright © 2021*

The Long Road to Solar Tax Credits: Making Tax Equity Accessible

Amongst recent statistics supporting clean energy investment, [nearly half of U.S. homeowners](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/17/more-u-s-homeowners-say-they-are-considering-home-solar-panels/) are interested in installing solar panels on their property. It’s a promising sentiment, since installing solar panels on just 25% of US homes could save the U.S. [$88 billion under current conditions](https://electrek.co/2020/12/03/the-us-would-save-billions-if-local-solar-powered-just-25-of-homes/), and [$473 billion by 2050 under a 95% clean electricity target](https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2021-01-07/how-rooftop-solar-could-save-americans-473-billion-dollars-boiling-point):

“Expanding local solar and storage on the distribution system reduces the need for power plants that only run on peak power days. It also better manages demand by offering more local energy products that customers want, which can increase grid resilience and reduce overall costs on the distribution and transmission grid.” - Michelle Lewis on [Local Solar Roadmap](https://www.localsolarforall.org/roadmap)

If solar power is appealing to a large portion of homeowners, with a calculated benefit to the grid as a whole, why aren’t there more solar panels on houses? In the same Pew survey that found 46% of U.S. homeowners are open to installing them, only another 6% have actually done so. 

A major obstacle is the cost of permitting and inspection, also known as “soft costs.” In fact, soft costs currently comprise at least [⅓ of the total price for an average household solar installation](https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2021/01/01/a-no-brainer-for-u-s-job-creation-update-solar-permitting-and-inspections/). While the costs of hardware and installation have decreased dramatically over the last 10 years, the soft costs have effectively remained the same.

The blame isn’t so much on the existence of permitting and inspection, they surely have important roles, but rather on the rigidity and complexity of the U.S. regulatory landscape. In fact, there are over [36,000 Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs)](https://solarbuildermag.com/featured/searching-ahjs-for-solar-permitting-start-with-this-free-crowd-sourced-registry/) across the 50 states, and permitting currently averages 30-40 days.

“Locating the authority that has jurisdiction to approve a rooftop solar project is only the beginning. What are the building codes, electrical codes and fire codes that can change project design from one town or city to the next?” - Matthew Hirsch, Solar Builder Mag.

The most effective remedy would be structural reform on a national level, which may be on the horizon with a Biden presidency. Standardizing and simplifying permitting for commercial solar is the logical next step in keeping up with its increasing popularity, a non-partisan movement towards efficiency. 

In line with that, Raise Green is engaged in streamlining the solar permitting process by partnering with Blu Banyan and the Orange Button Initiative on a project to [harness a crowd-sourced registry of all solar AHJs](https://github.com/SunSpecOrangeButton/ahj-registry). Coupled with our [Originator Engine](/originator-program), the AHJ database aids in contract automation and permitting, reducing the need for tedious research on local solar regulations. 

It’s an exciting time to be developing local solar projects! With reduced costs and anticipated federal support, we may soon witness a paradigm shift in how our energy is generated and stored. 

If you’re interested in starting your own clean energy project, Raise Green can help with both the development ([Originator Engine](https://oe.raisegreen.com/)) and funding ([Marketplace](/investment-opportunities-preview)). Or if you’re interested in investing in an existing project, you can create an investor account for free [here](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/home/register). 

As always, feel free to send any questions or comments you might have to [info@raisegreen.com](mailto:info@raisegreen.com).

To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please sign up for our email list and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)). 


*This Blog is for discussion purposes only, expresses the views of Raise Green, and is not investment research. This is not investment advice, and does not constitute a solicitation to sell or an offer to buy any securities. Certain information is from or links are to third party sources. Although they are believed to be reliable, we do not guarantee their accuracy, completeness or fairness. Raise Green is a licensed Funding Portal with the SEC and FINRA, and is not a Municipal Advisor. Prior to being approved to list a company on the Raise Green portal, a diligence review is completed. Prior to investing. investors must sign up for an account on the portal. Raise Green does not provide tax, accounting or legal advice. Investing in crowdfunded offerings involves risk and you should review the risks of a particular investment prior to investing. You are strongly encouraged to consult your professional advisors before investing. Go to [www.raisegreen.com](/homepage) for additional information on services, the funding portal, regulation, and investment risks. Or, direct inquiries to info@raisegreen.com. Copyright © 2021
*

Simplifying Permitting and Cutting Soft Costs for Local Solar Projects

Simplifying Permitting and Cutting Costs for Solar Projects

The future is looking bright for equitable and inclusive financing with the SEC’s favorable new crowdfunding regulations. Back in early September, we wrote a blog titled “[Changing Rules in a Changing Climate](/blog/changing-the-rules),” highlighting our comment letter to the SEC on a proposal seeking to improve access to capital and “Harmonize and Improve the ‘Patchwork’ Exempt Offering Framework” of existing private securities offerings, while maintaining investor protection. In other words, we want to make it easier for anyone to raise capital and invest in impactful community-scale projects and local companies. To us at Raise Green, crowdinvesting represents an opportunity for the 95% of Americans who aren’t rich (the SEC calls them “non-accredited investors”) to have more of the same types of investment opportunities as the wealthy (“accredited investors”). It also means giving climate and clean energy entrepreneurs (we call them “Originators”), especially historically disadvantaged founders and local project developers, a way to raise money that never existed before.

In our prior blog about the rulemaking process, we highlighted three of our favorite proposed changes to Regulation Crowdfunding along with the benefits these changes would bring to investors, Originators, and the planet. Now, we are excited to share an update on the new [Final Rule](https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-273) released by the SEC on November 2nd which includes our three ‘favorite’ proposed changes, as well as 35 mentions of Raise Green from our [comment letter](https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-05-20/s70520-7261538-217666.pdf) on the rulemaking. The final rule includes nearly all of our recommendations within it! This is an excellent outcome, as it increases the ease with which impact investors and Originators can interact and exchange capital on our marketplace towards our grand mission: fostering impactful and equitable climate projects and empowering communities across the US to create, own and benefit from climate solutions.

![Img](https://a.storyblok.com/f/77953/2411x2483/ceaadc1005/u-s-_securities_and_exchange_commission_headquarters.png)

Below are four of the changes with short explanations of how they will bring about positive change to crowdfunding and the Raise Green community. 

**1. Increased maximum raise limit for companies from $1.07M to $5M per company per year**

This means projects of bigger size and scale, including large community solar projects and even utility scale projects can raise inclusive financing from the crowd. This also enables more access for crowdinvestors who will have more and bigger opportunities to buy into larger projects, which often means increased profitability on bigger deals. In the case of solar projects, this allows projects to take advantage of lower cost estimates with economies of scale and therefore increase their economic efficiency and enhance value creation, all the while increasing the amount of kilowatts deployed per project! 

**2. Removal of accredited investor limits on crowdinvesting**

Part of creating a Raise Green account, or an account on any registered crowdfunding portal, involves estimating your net-worth and determining the maximum amount that both accredited and non-accredited investors can then put towards offerings. With this rule change the limit on the amount that an accredited investor is allowed to invest in a project is removed entirely, meaning once the rule goes into effect, projects will be able to receive larger investments from a variety of institutions and organizations, which increases the feasibility of larger scale projects coming to fruition through inclusive financing. This change may significantly accelerate the use of exempt securities offerings for actually delivering on the popular trend toward ‘blended capital’ that can mix philanthropy, mission-related investment, donor-advised funds, program-related investment, and concessional private capital with traditional private equity and retail impact investors. 

**3: Allowance for crowdfunding Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to be used going forward**

The new rule will now allow for companies to establish an SPV, an entity whose sole purpose is directly acquiring, holding, and disposing of securities issued by a single crowdfunding issuer and raising capital in one or more offerings made in compliance with Regulation Crowdfunding.  This means that now any privately held company can raise capital through crowdfunding without needing to add hundreds or even thousands of individual investors to their capitalization table, thus easing the administration and management challenge of conducting a crowdfunding raise and paying back investors in it. SPVs are subsidiaries created by parent companies to isolate financial risk. By allowing SPVs to act as conduits for investment in private companies, this change should make it more likely and potentially less risky for companies deciding to offer investment opportunities through crowdfunding.

**4: Allowance for prospective issuers to ‘test-the-waters’ to solicit investment interest prior to conducting an offering**

When the rule goes into effect, Originators will be able to communicate with prospective investors prior to listing a raise on Raise Green’s marketplace. Before this rule, there were strict prohibitions against advertising or communicating about a Regulation Crowdfunding offering until the offering actually went live, which meant that Originators were not able to get any feedback on the pricing or level of interest in their project in advance. This change increases the transparency of interactions between Originators and investors, allowing the Originator to open a line of communication and get a sense of how interested the crowd is in funding their project before going through the entire process of preparing an offering, thereby making creating and listing a project for funding more collaborative, transparent and easier than before. 

It’s an exciting time to be involved in crowdfunding, and we can’t wait to see how these changes affect our community. If you’re looking to [invest](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/offers/offersList), be on the lookout for a wider variety of projects on the way. To be best prepared for upcoming investments, you can [create an investor account](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/home/register) for free here. In the meantime, check out [our marketplace](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/offers/PreviewOffers/NzA4MzU=) to see if any projects pique your interest! 

As always, feel free to engage us in conversation and send any questions or comments you might have to [info@raisegreen.com](mailto:info@raisegreen.com).

To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please sign up for [our email list](https://raisegreen.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=11082e3b065fd4366639c43b6&id=7b4c5a3935) and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)). 




November 2nd, the SEC released a new rule: “[SEC Harmonizes and Improves “Patchwork” Exempt Offering Framework: Rule amendments harmonize registration exemptions, eliminating complexity and facilitating access to capital and investment while preserving or enhancing important investor protections](https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-273).”

Notes:

Outside resources: 

- [https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/16/a-report-card-for-the-secs-new-equity-crowdfunding-rules/](https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/16/a-report-card-for-the-secs-new-equity-crowdfunding-rules/?guccounter=1)
- [https://next.law/big-positive-changes-to-sec-crowdfunding-rules/](https://next.law/big-positive-changes-to-sec-crowdfunding-rules/)
- [https://www.woodshed.agency/blog/how-new-sec-rule-changes-will-affect-equity-crowdfunding](https://www.woodshed.agency/blog/how-new-sec-rule-changes-will-affect-equity-crowdfunding)



*This Blog is for discussion purposes only, expresses the views of Raise Green, and is not investment research. This is not investment advice, and does not constitute a solicitation to sell or an offer to buy any securities. Certain information is from or links are to third party sources. Although they are believed to be reliable, we do not guarantee their accuracy, completeness or fairness. Raise Green is a licensed Funding Portal with the SEC and FINRA, and is not a Municipal Advisor. Prior to being approved to list a company on the Raise Green portal, a diligence review is completed. Prior to investing. investors must sign up for an account on the portal. Raise Green does not provide tax, accounting or legal advice. Investing in crowdfunded offerings involves risk and you should review the risks of a particular investment prior to investing. You are strongly encouraged to consult your professional advisors before investing. Go to www.raisegreen.com for additional information on services, the funding portal, regulation, and investment risks. Or, direct inquiries to [info@raisegreen.com](mailto:info@raisegreen.com). Copyright © 2020*

Favorable New Crowdfunding Regulations in the New Year

The project creation journey continues! By this time you’ve thought about your *motivation* for starting a project, decided on the type of project you are creating, established an idea of the way your team, project company, and holding company interact, and established site control with your project location. 

## Costs
Now you’re ready to quantify the costs and earnings of your project, build out a financial model and bring you towards raising the money. Most projects have myriad costs in addition to the actual cost of the equipment (panels, racking, inverters). These additional costs include legal, permitting, operations and maintenance, etc. They’re often referred to as soft costs, and they make up about 64% of the project cost on average according to PV Magazine.
Part of the value that Raise Green provides as a financing partner is to help you reduce your soft costs. Calculating what your additional costs will be to get your project done is an important step in understanding whether your project will be profitable financially. You will need to itemize these costs in your use of proceeds so that the crowd knows how you’re going to spend their money.
![Img](//a.storyblok.com/f/77953/512x396/cc3adc3ff4/pv-mag-image.png)
## Off-taker
The biggest single driver of the financial viability of your project is the price that you get for selling the electricity that your project generates. That’s why the next step is finding an offtaker for your solar project -- someone who buys the electricity you generate. This could be secured through an agreement from one off-taker, or from many off-takers where community solar is allowed. The standard agreement is called a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), and it is the bread and butter of solar project finance - a source of revenue that provides contracted cash flows and drives revenue for you and your project’s crowd investors. In your PPA,  off-takers generally agree to a fixed cost of electricity purchase over a long time period of approximately 15-25 years. Raise Green helps simplify this process with the generation of a PPA unique to the variables you enter into our Originator Engine. 

## Financials
As an Originator, earning money for your hard work is crucial. With Raise Green, you can input data unique to your project and we will run a financial model that helps estimate the costs and allows us to conduct due diligence on the financial viability of your project, including your potential Originator earnings. The rest of your forecasted project earnings may be re-payed back to your investors, depending on the way you structure your investment opportunity on our marketplace. It's important to remember that raising money for a project isn’t a get rich quick scheme, you’re building a real infrastructure asset that provides essential services. Monitoring and maintaining your project is a decades-long process as long as the PPA is in effect and your system continues to generate electricity. That’s why it's extra important to have a good team and partners to make a plan for asset management that will see it through for the long haul. 

## Partners
Luckily, you don’t have to do it all yourself, there are enterprise partners standing by to help from start to finish on these services and more: banking, insurance, accounting, legal, tax equity, solar installer/engineering, procurement and construction (EPC). All of these partners play a key role in your project and we’re glad to refer you to some folks so you can establish these relationships prior to the listing and sale of securities on Raise Green’s marketplace. If you have all of these partners so far, or if you know how to establish these partnerships and are up for the task, good for you! Keep on moving forward and get ready for your raise. For some others, you might have only gotten so far and realized that you need extra help, either in the form of a team or capital, or you might just want to unload your project. If this describes you, get in contact with us as we may be able to help in the form of developing your project or listing a development capital raise (more info coming soon!). 

## Marketing
One of the final things to do before listing your project is to come up with the story and start thinking of marketing to your network. By story, we mean the information about your project that will be listed on our marketplace that will be shared with investors. If you’ve made it this far, you’ve passed [our R.A.I.S.E. due diligence](https://www.raisegreen.com/how-investing-works) and put in a lot of time, so feel free to take advantage of it by sharing some of your success story and motivation. This is the place where you mention the beneficial community, environmental, and potential economic benefits that come about from putting your project on the ground. Once it's listed, Raise Green will share it with our network, but it's also on you to contact supporters within your own community network to spread the word and hopefully drive investment interest in your project! 

That concludes the sneak peek into life as a Raise Green Originator. If you have most of the resources and decisions above ready, then you are a perfect candidate to move through our Originator Engine to generate your project. If you find yourself lacking in a couple things here and there, it would be a great idea to reach out to our Head of Originator Sales, Jackie Logan, to [share your project idea in a 15 minute meeting](https://calendly.com/raise-green) and see where Raise Green can provide guidance to fill in the gaps! 

As always, feel free to engage us in conversation and send any questions or comments you might have to info@raisegreen.com.

To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please sign up for our [email list](http://eepurl.com/dFst3T) and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)). 


How to Create a Clean Energy Project in Your Community, Part 2

How to create a clean energy project in your community: , part 2: from finding an offtaker to selling securities

Creating your own solar project as a Raise Green Originator is a great way to join the fight against climate change, but it takes hard work and dedication. Put simply, an Originator is a project developer, or a team of concerned and committed citizens that come together to take real action on climate change by developing a clean energy project. This is for anyone who is tired of reading about climate action, and wants to actually take climate action. What follows below is a sneak peek into the steps included in a project’s journey from inception to our Originator Engine and ending with raising money on our investor marketplace to get it done. If you’re reading as a prospective Originator and at any point find yourself missing a piece of the puzzle laid out in either part 1 or 2 of the blog post, it's a good idea to take a few steps back before moving forward. 

It all starts with asking yourself, why do you want to become an Originator? Do you want to set up a sustainable side-hustle, or receive hands-on experience in clean energy to set yourself up for a job elsewhere? Are you interested in creating your own business and growing it over time as a professional solar developer? Do you want to become a leader in your community by enabling investment in local clean energy? Or, are you motivated by helping a local organization, like a school, community center, or non-profit? 

All of the above are legitimate reasons to initiate your Originator journey, but your varying motivations may affect the lifecycle your project takes on, as well as the timeline and role that Raise Green plays in your project. You may also want to think about whether you want to proceed as a solo Originator, as part of a larger organization, or a team of like-minded individuals before you kick off the creation process. Once you think about your motivation for creating a project and get an idea of your Originator team, it’s time to flesh out where your project will be implemented and what it is. 

Most of Raise Green’s market is built around solar projects. Such that, if you’re developing a solar project, or you have an operating solar project that you’re looking to refinance, we have an immense catalogue of resources to help you create and finance your work. If you have a different idea don’t worry, we can still help you access capital to make your idea come to life, but some of the points below may be unrelated to your project. 

One of the first things you do in the Originator Engine is name and create your project and holding company. You might already be working for a company that will run a project, like a non-profit, or you might be a solo Originator creating your company for the first time. Either way, we will need information about the project, like its name and description, as well as information about your company, including a description, address, and the state it will be incorporated in. If you want help with incorporating your company, we have templates and an enterprise partner that can help get it done affordably. 

Regardless of your project type, you will need to know the site where it will be implemented. Once you have an idea of where you think you will put your project, you need to obtain approval from the site owner to place it there. This is what we call site control. In some cases, an Originator might already own the site (e.g. building, parcel of land) where they want to place their project, but in many cases, this process of obtaining site control involves close communication with the owner of the site to achieve express approval. Establishing a good, stable relationship with a site owner is recommended, as it is a key piece of managing the decades-long lifespan of your project.

Once you establish site control, you can get into the details of putting the pieces of your solar system together through sizing your system, finding an installer and offtaker, and calculating costs and earnings of your project. You can gauge the size of your system in terms of kW capacity. For example, community-scale solar projects normally fall between 50-500kW. With site control and a size estimate, you can take steps towards finding a solar installer on a free site like [EnergySage](https://www.energysage.com/), or reach out for a Raise Green recommended installer. Moreover, an installer is one of the first partners we recommend engaging since you’ll need licensed professionals to design, engineer, and build the system.

Installers will provide you with a bid for how much it costs to install your system, but the costs of your system extend beyond installation costs (more to be mentioned in part 2). In fact, the solar ‘soft costs’ as they’re called account for an average of about 62% of the cost of going solar. And that’s a main reason why Raise Green exists, to help reduce these costs and make it more affordable and accessible for communities to get clean energy, especially disadvantaged communities. Installers will also help you finalize the design of your system, a necessary step towards finding an offtaker that will purchase your electricity. 

If you’ve made it this far, continue on to part two of the blog coming soon. In our next part, we’ll dive into finding an offtaker, projecting financial costs and earnings, finding partners, and finalizing your project story to sell securities on our marketplace.

As always, feel free to engage us in conversation and send any questions or comments you might have to info@raisegreen.com.

To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please [sign up to our email list](http://eepurl.com/dFst3T) and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)). 


How to Create a Clean Energy Project in Your Community, Part 1

How to create a clean energy project in your community, part 1: from inception to installer

Monetary policy may seem like a nebulous concept, but it has incredible influence over the well-being of both people and the planet. Dr. John Clippinger is a researcher and activist who knows this very well, as he has dedicated his career to rethinking financial systems and modelling the ways they can facilitate beneficial, holistic outcomes. John joins our co-founders Franz Hochstrasser and Matt Moroney on the fifth episode of the “Raise Green” podcast. “Raise Green” is a 7 episode podcast series exploring the climate crisis through the minds of local leaders and global experts. Listen to the approximately 30 minute Episode #5 [here on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/1doE5taUTPAjJYgrdqdmig?si=lBwW8n_BTfe9McQKFvcgTg).

John Clippinger’s urge to restructure financial systems is rooted in the inherent failures and inequities of the current system. He starts by highlighting the ways COVID-19 has accentuated cracks in our traditional economic model, with no easy way to recover. The Federal Reserve issued an unprecedented $6 trillion dollars for pandemic relief: buying debt off of corporations, while simultaneously providing unemployment stimulus to aid individuals with their own daily needs and debts. Yet despite federal aid and a soaring stock market, we still saw a contraction of about [33% of the US economy](https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/07/30/896714437/3-months-of-hell-u-s-economys-worst-quarter-ever). 

We clearly need to reevaluate how we approach debt, but even more notably, the entire financial system must adapt to fundamental changes exposed by the shocks of 2020. For example, millions of people in the service industry simply aren’t able to return to their normal work, and we can’t use outdated solutions to address this. John elaborates on the current model of “extractive capitalism,” a centuries-old relic of industrialization, wherein economies are set up to maximize material output (regardless of the costs). John, Franz, and Matt all agree on the need to evolve towards “biological capitalism,” or what we often refer to as ‘inclusive capitalism’, a holistic, self-sustaining system that prioritizes the health of people and the environment. 

The idea is to design markets that achieve productive outcomes without negative externalities. Rather than mitigating greenhouse gasses as a given aspect of the system, economies could be organized not to produce them in the first place. This brings John to what he calls “reflexive mutual organizations,” self-contained systems with feedback loops that accumulate value for all those involved. That is to say, systems that inherently benefit themselves as well as the components necessary for life, not unlike the idea of circular economies highlighted by Eva Gladek in episode #1 of our podcast series. He envisions smaller decentralized organizations, “nodes,” interacting within a larger, self-sustaining economy. 

John acknowledges that this “civic homeostasis” would require parameters with a proper incentive system, which is where verifiable metrics are important. Our industrial economy is based on endless consumption of fossil fuels, and to course correct, investments inevitably need to be redirected to more resilient technologies and renewable or regenerative systems and practices. We can encourage that by verifying the full-extent of the negative impact wrought by current practices, as well as creating independent metrics that better convey the value of positive impacts. The latter is starting to be done with Renewable Energy Credits for a given megawatt-hour of renewable energy generated, since electricity is easier to quantify than other social or environmental benefits. This creates an exchange that can be independently verified: clean energy produced vs greenhouse gasses offset, but we’re just scratching the surface of how to properly quantify and express these benefits. As we’ve [told the U.S. Treasury Department](https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=TREAS-DO-2019-0004-0044) in the past, we must demand more and better data to improve understanding of actual impacts. 

Even despite the competing crises of the day, we are moving towards a holistic economy at a promising rate. The more we can encourage and verify positive feedback loops in smaller nodes, the more examples we have for modeling and achieving better results. John believes that, likely sooner rather than later, we’ll have the parameters to move towards a holistic economy that benefits all life on earth. 

You can find the “Raise Green” Podcast on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/1jJS3POiHxhYb7NJZwr2q2), [Apple](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/raise-green/id1529894700), and [Soundcloud](https://soundcloud.com/user-353076924) streaming services. Be sure to check us out!

Have any questions you want us to ask, or a guest you would like to be featured on the podcast? Email us at info@raisegreen.com. To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please [sign up for our email list](http://eepurl.com/dFst3T) and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)).

If you’re interested in making an impact investment now, check out the [Raise Green Investor Marketplace](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/offers/offersList).


Raise Green Podcast Episode #5: What is the Future of Finance?

We founded Raise Green to make community-scale climate projects happen, plain and simple. And now, we are excited to announce that we are making that vision even more accessible by offering development capital for clean energy entrepreneurs. 
 
We’ve worked with over 100 potential project developers, ranging from total newbies to experienced developers. We also developed two inclusively financed community-scale solar projects ourselves under the entity of New Haven Community Solar. So we know, starting a solar project and bringing it past the create stage to the build, fund, and run stages is not as easy as it should be. We provide [extensive resources](https://www.raisegreen.com/originator-program) to project developers (we call them Originators) so they can navigate this process, but barriers still exist to moving projects forward. One of the most common barriers to developing a solar project is a lack of access to capital. 
 
An Originator may need funds to scope project sites, pay for an interconnection study, pull permits, cover staff time worked, or pay external partners to secure site control for their system. By receiving development capital funds from crowd investors like you, the project creation phase is made more accessible for Originators and in turn increases the likelihood of projects listed on our [investor marketplace](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/offers/offersList) upon a later date.
 
Targeted financial incentives like access to development capital helps the community by lowering the barriers to entry for new project developers, and making the project creation phase more accessible and inclusive. In turn, this access to capital for underserved and disadvantaged populations increases the probability of projects being implemented on the ground for communities in need. Experts at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory [found](https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/11/09/how-to-accelerate-solar-adoption-for-the-underserved/) that these types of incentives can be catalytic to accelerating solar adoption for the underserved. That means more community Originators working with Raise Green, more climate action projects for the planet, and more opportunities for investors. 

For investors, it not only means more investment opportunities, it includes the diversification of investment types on our marketplace. Whereas solar projects tend to have equity offerings that have a contractual cash flow delivered over a period of 10-20 years, development capital investments are typically structured around a shorter maturity period, (e.g., 1-2 years), with a fixed interest coupon paid back along with the initial investment when the project gets built or at maturity. 

If you are an experienced solar developer in need of up to a million in development capital to move your next project forward, or an aspiring Originator creating your own green job who has been waiting for an opportunity to fast-track your project development work with funding, get in contact with us and we would be happy help get your project up, funded and running. If you are an investor looking to get into climate tech, sustainable finance and support community economic development to accelerate the equitable transition to a clean energy economy, [create an investor account](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/home/register) for free and keep an eye out for investments coming soon. 

As always, feel free to engage us in conversation and send any questions or comments you might have to info@raisegreen.com.

To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please [sign up for our email list](http://eepurl.com/dFst3T) and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)). 


Raise capital to develop your solar project, invest in clean energy entrepreneurs 

Episode #4 of the Raise Green podcast series features Joel Solomon, an esteemed expert in impact investing! Joel is a founding partner at Renewal Funds, Canada’s largest mission-oriented venture capital fund, with over 20 years in the industry. Joel joins co-founders Franz Hochstrasser and Matt Moroney. “Raise Green” is a 7 episode podcast series exploring the climate crises through the minds of local leaders and global experts. Listen to the approximately 30 minute Episode #4 [here on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/0gWz7vONjQJjT8UmiNe1Kc).

We embrace the term “impact investing” for funding that generates positive social and environmental outcomes. For a while, these investments weren’t taken seriously, since the dominant paradigm has been to maximize returns regardless of the cost. But as social and environmental problems have become increasingly apparent, and as existing impact investments have proven their financial viability, and in [many cases their superior financial performance](https://www.putnam.com/literature/pdf/ESG001_RE-0e702a5eed2e0f8679bede5d43704f46.pdf), its popularity has grown at a promising rate.

There was $20.9 billion of sustainable investing during the first half of 2020, which is comparable to the rate in 2019. Even more impressively, the 2019 investment flow was four times the previous record. This steady growth, in spite of an administration that [actively undermines it](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa/laws-and-regulations/rules-and-regulations/public-comments/1210-AB95), represents a shift in heart and mind for investors. That is to say, people increasingly want their investments to be affiliated with less harm and more good.

Joel describes how it has taken a couple decades for this mindset to come to prominence, but now it’s an unstoppable concept. What started as a marginalized “burr in the sock” for the incumbent system has the increasing potential to erode the status quo. Even the biggest players in the industry have to adapt to emerging trends.

Franz points out that, [by all indications](https://www.morganstanley.com/pub/content/dam/msdotcom/ideas/sustainable-signals/pdf/Sustainable_Signals_Whitepaper.pdf), the emerging generation of millennial investors will continue to accelerate this trend. In turn, there’s the potential to shift the future of capital deployment and how it’s allocated around the world. This poses an opportunity to re-establish standards and accountability, after the era of “the only goal of money is to make more money.” Joel imagines an enlightenment of sorts, where we foster a period of financial innovation by re-thinking money and its uses.

Raise Green is one of the companies that’s striving to catalyze this shift in consciousness, and Matt believes we’re close to that turnover period. Private-sector businesses and finance can be a tremendously powerful force for improving both communities and the planet, and the role of the small players is to continue demonstrating and reinforcing this trend. As momentum builds, larger firms will be obligated to understand and follow, and as pressure mounts, they might even realize that being on the front end of the trend would be beneficial to them.

With compounding economic, pandemic, social justice, and climate crises, we’re in a period where people feel the need to act, which is why impact investing is being taken more seriously. In the past, regulators have expressed skepticism about ESG labels, which is the metric that’s supposed to assure that the funds go towards benevolent purposes. Legislating good and bad is surely subjective, and Joel admits it’s a dynamic issue. It’s more about overall direction, which divides into measurable and subjective components.

Within his own firm, Joel ensures that his portfolios have enough examples that are simple enough for people to understand and approve of. These are funds that are measurably beneficial by standards and qualities we can all agree on, such as cleaning up pollution. This in turn builds their investors’ trust when the firm handles more subjective, complicated cases that aren’t as easily quantified. 

In a way it’s an art form, where standards and agreeable qualities are established, and then subjective creativity delivers unique outcomes from there.

Matt has always believed that blending art and science achieves the best possible outcomes. Relying on one perspective misses other important pieces. Joel agrees, seeking to provide an overall model, based on integrity, honesty, self-reflection, and being eager for challenges and improvement. These are noticeably human qualities, and they provide an important parallel: finance and the economy aren’t an abstract thing, they’re about people. By humanizing investments, we can improve their character in the same way we might to do ourselves.

You can find the “Raise Green” Podcast on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/1jJS3POiHxhYb7NJZwr2q2), [Apple](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/raise-green/id1529894700), and [Soundcloud](https://soundcloud.com/user-353076924) streaming services. Be sure to check us out!

Have any questions you want us to ask, or a guest you would like to be featured on the podcast? Email us at info@raisegreen.com. To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please sign up for our [email list](http://eepurl.com/dFst3T) and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)).

If you’re interested in making an impact investment now, check out our Raise Green [Investor Marketplace](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/offers/offersList).



Raise Green Podcast Episode #4: What is Impact Investing? 

Our podcast series continues! 

Raise Green’s second podcast episode is an extended double with Sue Biniaz, lead climate lawyer in the US State Department for more than 25 years. She played a central role in all major climate negotiations during that time, including the Paris Agreement. 

Sue joins co-founders Franz Hochstrasser and Matt Moroney. “Raise Green” is a 7 episode podcast series exploring the climate crises through the minds of local leaders and global experts. **Listen to the approximately 20 minute Episode #2 [here on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/0upJYLQV6bNmfDj5K5hlSY?si=Ilb7oCUJRCetowpVgwfYDA). Episode #3 is a continuation of the interview, and can be found [here on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/09HHWEaUl8EZ8k88N9PLwu).**

We begin with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which Sue helped develop at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. The UNFCCC sets the framework for how nations have approached climate issues for the past 28 years and counting. The negotiation to arrive at the UNFCCC involved many of the same issues that continue to arise in international climate discussions today, with this conversation focusing on differentiation and bindingness. 

Bindingness: Are policy commitments legally binding?
Differentiation: Should all countries have the same commitments? 

For example, the Kyoto Protocol (1997) defined legally-binding caps on greenhouse gas emissions for developed countries, but the US didn’t ratify, so it only ever accounted for a third of global emissions. Part of the reason was that countries were differentiated into two different Annexes of the Convention, classifications that have been contested ever since. That was until the Paris Agreement outlined a framework that lets each country set its own target, and their chief binding commitment was to continually report on progress and update the targets every five years. 

Frameworks before that had attempted to recognize more nuances with countries’ categorization. To name a few, there are oil-producing countries, tiny island nations, and countries going through dramatic economic transitions (e.g. countries affected by the collapse of the USSR). 

This highlights the complexities of climate policy negotiation, a subject which Sue Biniaz is all too familiar with. She shared four tips for negotiation which we’ve summarized below:

1) Preparation. There are multiple ways to represent your own position, and knowing other parties’ positions can help you effectively present to them. Consider different ways to reflect the same substance.
2) Ask a lot of questions. Related to Tip #1, clarifying other parties’ positions can help you address the same substance with different wording. 
3) Be clear and concise. Long rambling proposals can lose people’s attention. Short, simple lists can go a long way. 
4) Explain why the proposal is in the other party’s interest, rather than simply dictating your position.

Sue is still active in the negotiations as a Senior Fellow at the UN Foundation and has been teaching courses on international climate negotiations at various law schools. Franz took the opportunity to inquire about the current state of the Paris Agreement:

A new US administration could easily re-join the Paris Agreement, but it would have to design an emissions target within 30 days, as each country decides its own NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution)This would create a delicate balance for the new administration: substantial commitments to regain credibility, versus domestic backlash in response to ambitious policies. Franz points out that the COVID-19 pandemic has added even another layer to that dynamic. It has delayed the next UN Climate Conference (COP26) by a year, which will be the first global stocktake for countries’ NDCs. Sue highlights that this may be a blessing in disguise, since many countries weren’t on-track to reach their NDCs this year, and it also gives the US a chance to regain its footing with a new president.

COVID-19 has understandably shifted countries’ focus for the time being, but countries can still work towards their NDCs by “building back better,” ensuring that stimulus packages aren’t going back to business as usual.

Despite what it may seem, Sue reminds us that only a fraction of the world is trying to devalue the science around climate change. We all have a duty to continue pursuing a fact-based approach to problem solving, insisting on even our own accuracy.

With that, there’s reason for optimism, as countries like China are still pushing towards ambitious targets for climate policy. Domestic momentum on climate action is also picking up: companies, cities, and other non-state actors are continuing to improve their ambition, invest in green and scale down brown. 

This is the role Raise Green plays: empowering local communities to improve their infrastructure and tackle climate change. Many of the challenges are persistent, but Sue reminds us of our ability to make a difference. Whether in negotiations or neighborhoods, working together creatively is the way to get it done.

You can find the “Raise Green” Podcast on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3SoCbMDNAj0GT4FSc7RqXt?si=1UQ0JK6_R_aLGgtVCj97jg), [Apple](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/raise-green/id1529894700), and [Soundcloud](https://soundcloud.com/user-353076924) streaming services. Be sure to check us out!

Have any questions you want us to ask, or a guest you would like to be featured on the podcast? Email us at [info@raisegreen.com](mailto:info@raisegreen.com). To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please sign up for our email [list](http://eepurl.com/dFst3T) and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)). 


Raise Green Podcast Episode #2: What is Climate Policy? 

We’re live! 

Do you wonder if sustainability is achievable or even enough, do we need renewal, or regeneration, do we need circularity? How do we make that happen? 

We recently launched the official “Raise Green” podcast, hosted by Co-Founders Franz Hochstrasser and Matt Moroney - exploring the climate crisis through the minds of local leaders and global experts. Our podcast revolves around short, accessible conversations that share new ways of working together via personal stories about creating a healthy, just, and sustainable future. [Listen to the approximately 20 minute Episode #1 here on Spotify:](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3SoCbMDNAj0GT4FSc7RqXt?si=1UQ0JK6_R_aLGgtVCj97jg )

Episode #1 features Eva Gladek, Founder and CEO of a sustainability focused consulting and venture-building company called Metabolic in Amsterdam, Netherlands. They literally build ventures to remake the economy. One of her first projects with Metabolic was De Ceuvel, a cafe and city playground for innovation, experimentation and creativity that makes sustainability tangible, accessible and fun. 

This award-winning, sustainable planned workplace for creative and social enterprises on a remediated former shipyard in Amsterdam demonstrates the potential economic opportunities can be built with a bit of creativity and perseverance. 

**Building on these ideas, Metabolic has built circularity plans for cities, provinces, and private enterprises in agriculture, banking, building, chemicals, and textiles. Check out their recent work in the U.S. cities of Charlotte and Boulder.**

**Between this September day in 2020, and 2030 what will you build?
**

Eva and her band of changemakers at Metabolic are dedicated to creating a beneficial and  equitable society through systems transformation, circular economy, and sustainable design. She is consistently listed among the top influencers in sustainability in The Netherlands, a country recognized as leading the transition to a circular economy. We talk to Eva about:

1) How the circular economy is different from sustainability in general?

2) Is everything a resource?

3) How popular is the topic of circular economy in Europe, and why has it not caught on in the United States? 

4) How might a country like the Netherlands continue to improve on the topic of circular economy? 

The show goes on next week as we welcome the next of our several guests soon to be featured on the “Raise Green” podcast. Episode #2 is with the inimitable and legendary Sue Biniaz, a former lead climate lawyer for the U.S. State Department where she played a central role in the negotiation of nearly every major climate agreement to date, including the Paris Agreement. 

You can find the “Raise Green” Podcast  on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3SoCbMDNAj0GT4FSc7RqXt?si=1UQ0JK6_R_aLGgtVCj97jg), [Apple](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/raise-green/id1529894700), and [Soundcloud](https://soundcloud.com/user-353076924/evagladek) streaming services. Be sure to check us out!

Have any questions you want us to ask, or a guest you would like to be featured on the podcast? Email us at [info@raisegreen.com](mailto:null). To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please sign up for our [email list](http://eepurl.com/dFst3T) and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)). 


Raise Green Podcast Episode #1: What is the Circular Economy? 

# Raise Green Comments on the SEC’s Proposed Changes to Crowdinvesting Rules

Whether it’s an ominous orange sky in the middle of the day, climate fires ravaging communities, increased likelihood of contagion, asthma and morbidity from air pollution, or the destructive derechos, hurricanes, floods and other disastrous weather-events hitting neighborhoods across the country, *we’re experiencing climate change everyday*. These are sobering reminders that **time is of the essence** to make the shift to a clean energy economy. That’s why we need everyone involved in creating and financing the sustainable infrastructure needed for a climate-safe and resilient future.

Raise Green is a category-defining [marketplace](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/offers/offersList) dedicated to bringing verifiable impact investment opportunities to everyone, and empowering communities to create and finance climate action projects. That unique blend of assistance and access is currently missing in the clean energy finance world, and it relies on specific rules regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Earlier this year the SEC proposed some big changes to their rule aimed at “[Facilitating Capital Formation and Expanding Investment Opportunities by Improving Access to Capital in Private Markets](https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-05-20/s70520.htm)".

The SEC’s rulemaking process invited comments on this proposed rule, and Raise Green took the opportunity to provide detailed comments in a joint letter with New Haven Community Solar (NHCS): https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-05-20/s70520-7261538-217666.pdf. 
Raise Green and NHCS are both founded, designed and mission-driven with a core intention of amplifying marginalized voices and empowering everyone to be part of creating a more healthy, just and sustainable world. This rule-making offers a tremendous opportunity to expand inclusive finance through crowdfunding. 

We throw that word around a lot, ‘crowdfunding’, but it took several years for crowdfunding platforms like ours to become available to everyday investors like you, and even longer for ‘crowdfunding’ to become a common noun known to the general public. Crowdfunding is a catch-all for a few different types of crowdfunding, but most of it is donation-based crowdfunding like Kickstarter where you donate, and may or may not get something back. 

Equity crowdfunding (or what we refer to as ‘crowdinvesting’) is the actual sale of private securities (stock or debt that is not available on a public exchange like the NYSE or NASDAQ). When an Originator sells securities, their company is bound by law to use the funds for what they said, and to pay investors back (plus profit!) as promised, if their project is successful. Now more than 500k Americans have made a crowdinvestment since 2016 (Crowdfund Capital Advisors, 2020). 

Even though crowdinvesting became legal after the JOBS Act passed in 2012, it wasn’t fully allowed in the U.S. until the SEC finalized regulations in 2016. With Reg CF, Reg A and other exempt offerings, private equity investing is now more accessible and transparent for accredited and non-accredited investors. But recent analysis from the SEC has found significant barriers to widespread adoption. Now the SEC has kicked off the process of revising exempt security offering rules, and Raise Green is pleased to help make comments that can help make more wealth building opportunities for impact investors at the community-scale and accelerate the clear energy transition. 

# Our 3 favorite proposed changes to Regulation Crowdfunding, and how they can benefit investors, Originators, and the fight against climate change: 

**1: Increase of the maximum raise (i.e. offering amount) per company to $5 Million or more **

Currently, there is an investment limit of $1.07 million per company per year for crowdfunding raises. Increasing this limit would allow for an overall increase in capital raised, while simultaneously allowing for crowd investors to invest in and benefit from ownership of larger climate action projects (e.g. lower cost estimates and higher value creation efficiency). This would mean that Raise Green could inclusively finance projects that are several megawatts in capacity, which can be more profitable and have a greater impact than smaller projects due to economies of scale.

**2: Removal of the investment limit for accredited investors and increased transparency of investment limits for non-accredited investors**

This will not only allow for a greater influx of capital towards projects from accredited investors, but also help bypass the issues currently accompanying the calculation of investment limits for non-accredited investors. Such limits are driven from self-attestation of net worth, a process that is inherently difficult for most of the general public to calculate. By removing the accredited investor limit Raise Green projects can take larger investments from family offices, donor-advised funds, and other accredited and institutional investors which means more and larger projects can get funded more quickly, while still allowing for blended capital and access to non-accredited investors to be in the same deals.

**3: Allowing companies and crowdfunding platforms to market and advertise an investment opportunity prior to officially listing it (taking “indications of interest”) **

Under the current Reg CF exemption, issuers (i.e. companies that host investment opportunities on marketplaces like Raise Green’s) are unable to communicate with their investor base until they have gone through the process of preparing an offering. Allowing issuers to effectively “test the waters” and gauge interest may lead to an explosion of interest among both issuers and investors alike. Increasing transparency in the fundraising and project development process is likely to improve access and efficiency in our work to build a new asset class of green crowdfunded private equity.

Raise Green views many of the changes in the proposed rule as important ways to help accelerate inclusive climate finance and move towards a democratized clean energy future. We have more than 60 Originators in the pipeline to create climate action projects - if these Originators and others are able to operate under these new rule changes, we anticipate an explosion of interest among the impact investing community and an increase in the number and variety of prospective Originators. It’s an exciting time for Raise Green, and we welcome you all to join the movement to finance and create the climate-safe and resilient future that we all want and need. To see the entire letter in extended detail, check out this [link] (https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-05-20/s70520-7261538-217666.pdf).

As always, feel free to engage us in conversation and send any questions or comments you might have to info@raisegreen.com.

To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please sign up for our email list and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen)). 


![Img](//a.storyblok.com/f/77953/267x150/2252db00c5/updated-copy-__-raisegreen-pitch-deck-200407-1.svg)

*This is not a Research Report, should not be construed as investment advice, and does not constitute a solicitation to sell or an offer to buy securities relating to any products referenced herein Past performance is not indicative of future results. This blog represents a business discussion only and the views of individuals at Raise Green. Investing in Crowdfunded investments is risky and speculative. Please see FAQs on this Site for more information.*

Changing the Rules in a Changing Climate: Raise Green Comments on the SEC’s Proposed Changes to Crowdinvesting Rules

Changing the Rules in a Changing Climate


## New Raise Green Tech Platform Automates Process For Starting and Financing a Solar Business 

*Amid record unemployment, Raise Green’s Originator Engine empowers anyone, regardless of experience or income, to create and lead their own solar energy project and invite investors*

**Somerville, MA** - [Raise Green](https://www.raisegreen.com/) — the impact investment marketplace for green infrastructure and clean energy projects — today announced the launch of its [Originator Engine](https://oe.raisegreen.com/), a first-of-its-kind SaaS solution developed in partnership with IBM to help drive entrepreneurship and community resilience by empowering nearly anyone to start their own solar energy business. The new, easy-to-use platform automates the process of creating a solar energy project, templatizing and aggregating what would be hundreds of pages of documentation. Last month, Raise Green launched as the first crowdfunding platform for investment in clean energy projects nationwide with its [first offering](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/offers/PreviewOffers/NjY3MjA=) of 50+ projects in the pipeline. The [Greentown Labs](https://greentownlabs.com/)-based company is the first to offer equity crowdfunding focused on investments for climate solutions nationwide since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) [finalization of equity crowdfunding regulations](https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2015-249.html).  

 

*“The 20th Century was built on gas stations at every corner. The 21st Century will be built on solar arrays at every corner,” said Matthew Moroney, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Raise Green. “Raise Green is stripping away the barriers that often come with starting a business with an easy-to-use platform that automates the process of building local solar energy projects and funding them.”
*
 

The COVID-19 pandemic has left [50 million Americans ](https://www.wsj.com/video/unemployed-americans-line-up-as-600-jobless-benefit-expires/A86FBE2C-75FC-4107-AC38-E50E53BC3528.html) unemployed and put local communities at high risk. These communities are also impacted by the effects of climate change. As part of this new service, Raise Green is also announcing a new loan program, now accepting applications, with additional financial assistance to anyone looking to start their own climate action project. It is no secret that low-income communities and communities of color bear the brunt of the ill effects of climate change, and of the economic fallout from the pandemic. Raise Green is committed to meeting this moment with an eye toward environmental justice, removing barriers to green energy for those who stand to benefit the most.

 

*“This has been a fantastic combination of market knowledge, business understanding and technology development, leveraging the combined skills of IBM and Raise Green to rapidly make a difference in solving one of the key issues facing us in the world today,” [said](https://www.ibm.com/blogs/think/uk-en/developing-the-solar-community/) Keric Morris, Digital Strategy Global Energy Lead at IBM.*

 

Raise Green’s Originator Engine was born out of the complexity of a solar project with [Columbus House](https://www.columbushouse.org/), a non-profit providing homelessness solutions, during which they realized many of the documents being processed were similar. The Originator Engine also contributes toward the [United Nations’ 13th Sustainable Development Goal](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal13), among others, by strengthening adaptive capabilities against climate-related hazards, integrating climate change measures into planning, improving education on climate change mitigation, and more.

 

*"Solutions to climate demand rapid scalability of existing technology. This can be achieved with replicable and templatized project finance using verifiable impact to empower large institutions to invest confidently in locally created projects. When dealing with a problem as daunting as climate change, we need to tap technology to give people the means to participate in the fight at the local level,” said David Thomson, Director of Integration at Verses. “Raise Green’s easy-to-use SaaS Originator Engine empowers anyone to take charge of their own climate movement and innovate a sustainable infrastructure project where they have identified a need.” *

 

While most models used to set up clean energy businesses are cumbersome and fundamentally inequitable, Raise Green’s cost-effective solution fills the need for a common platform that provides innovators with real-world knowledge to develop and run their own solar business from start to finish in four phases:

1) **Create:** The Originator Engine guides a project creator through complex corporate obstacles to help them turn their project idea into a real business that’s ready for funding.

2) **Fund:** An originator gets access to Raise Green’s crowdfunding platform to finance their project, allowing anyone to invest.

3) **Build: **With the funds raised, an originator continues to develop and manage the project with guidance from Raise Green. This can include construction, permitting applications, etc.

4) **Run:** An originator sees the ongoing, direct impact of their project, gathering invaluable knowledge and experience along the way.


Raise Green’s marketplace offers a wide variety of replicable, templatized investment opportunities for solar power, affordable housing, electric vehicle charging stations, agriculture, water projects, and microgrids. Each investment vertical is designed to have an immediate impact on the resilience of local communities with a chance to earn returns while building sustainable infrastructure. Whether investing $100 or as much as $100,000, everyone can be directly involved in owning a part of a climate action project to support sustainable infrastructure. 


To learn more about Raise Green and to utilize their platform to invest in or start clean energy projects, visit: [https://www.raisegreen.com. ](https://www.raisegreen.com)


**About Raise Green:** Raise Green is the first marketplace in the U.S. for local and inclusive impact investment with verifiable and demonstrable environmental benefits. Through the platform, anyone can be an originator of their own community solar project. On Raise Green’s investor marketplace, anyone (individuals and institutions) can invest in community-focused climate resilience projects across a varied range of project scales and minimum investments. Early investors in Raise Green are veterans of the renewable energy industry and project financing. Investors can derive value while at the same time creating quantifiable impacts in local communities, as well as receiving financial returns if the project is successful. 

Press Release: Raise Green Launches Tech Platform Automates Process For Starting and Financing a Solar Business 

Press Release: New Raise Green Tech Platform Automates Process For Starting and Financing a Solar Business 

### IBM and Raise Green

*9 March, 2020 | Written by: Keric Morris and Franz Hochstrasser*

While some progress has been made on renewables deployment – in the US they now make up around 20% of energy production – there is still a long way to go in achieving net zero carbon in energy production. If you then consider that in order to decarbonize transport, heating, cooling and cooking, even with increased energy efficiency, we will likely need to double electricity production from current levels, the scale of the gap gets considerably larger.

*"This has been a fantastic combination of market knowledge, business understanding and technology development, leveraging the combined skills of IBM and Raise Green to rapidly make a difference in solving one of the key issues facing us in the world today" 
– Keric Morris, Digital Strategy Global Energy Lead*

In order to bridge this gap, centralized generation isn’t going to be enough – it will take businesses, communities and individuals playing a more active role in production and storage to meet our increasing needs. Yet, to date, the majority of the growth has been in large scale assets and the development of solar on consumers’ homes.

The fact is that a number of hurdles get in the way of communities being a part of the needed change. Building renewable generation assets requires access to financing and an ability to navigate an array of regulatory, asset build and connection/pricing issues – which makes it difficult for all but the most determined and experienced community renewable energy developers to achieve.

At the same time institutional investors searching for green projects find the scale of community projects too small for their portfolios and difficult to assess and manage, creating more risk than they are willing to accept in their investments.

Yet help in solving these issues is here in the form of start-ups like Raise Green who are looking to help ‘democratise’ the process of renewable development, making it easy and accessible for all. Raise Green is a Boston based fintech and community solar business that matches community developers to crowdinvesting – supporting them through every step of the way including, as needed, negotiating with power companies, helping to find contractors, etc.

*"Millions of activists and community leaders are demanding urgent climate action and marching in the streets, but what do we do at the end of the march? Raise Green gives heroes across the U.S. the tools that they need to take real impactful action right now on climate change by creating or investing directly in a climate solution project. Our originator engine powered by IBM will give anyone the ability to create their own green job and bring solar or climate solutions to their community."
 – Franz Hochstrasser, CEO Raise Green*

They have already completed 2 projects, have 40+ further renewable projects in the pipeline and are looking to scale even further by developing a platform based approach to delivery that will help potential community renewable asset developers from across the US to carefully navigate through the process using a digital originator engine. This is where the team turned to IBM for help to leverage tools such as Red Hat and the IBM accelerator to rapidly develop this engine.

In an initial 6 week program of work, the core of the engine has been developed building on Raise Green’s proprietary approach using an agile orientated approach and pre-built tools from the IBM accelerator. Using the existing community renewable asset developers in the pipeline we are robustly challenging and testing the platform.

While this seems like a very rapid development timeline (and it is!), given the scale of the emerging climate emergency and the need to enable a broader swathe of communities to actively engage in the change, this type of approach is essential. That is the beauty of the platform, that by leveraging proven IBM approaches to de-risk the technical build, combined with Raise Green’s experience in community renewable development, a robust solution can be created to accelerate the transition to a net zero carbon future.

Cross Posted [from IBM Blog](https://www.ibm.com/blogs/think/uk-en/developing-the-solar-community/)

IBM and Raise Green - Developing the solar community

Developing the solar community

IBM and Raise Green


# 22 interesting reads from Raise Green


A summer of working from home has led to an increase in team Zoom calls, time spent out in nature, Netflix binging, and a lot more time to read some good books! While our summer has been quite busy with the [launch of our investor marketplace](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/offers/offersList), communications with prospective Originators, and the ongoing growth of the Raise Green team, we took some time to compile a list of the books our team members have been reading to educate and entertain themselves.

Check out our list below! Feel free to start a conversation with any of us about the list, or shoot us any recommendations you have through [info@raisegreen.com](mailto:info@raisegreen.com). 

To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please sign up to our email [list](http://eepurl.com/dFst3T) and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)). 


#### **Franz Hochstrasser**
**Behave: The Biology of Humans at our Best and Worst - Robert Sapolsky**
If you want to know why people are Republican, it may be because they have a hyperactive amygdala. This exceptionally detailed and yet relatable tour de force into brain chemistry is the best explanation and examination of our human behavior and impulses that I’ve come across.

**The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir - Ta Nehisi Coates  **A gorgeously written first-hand account of a young black man’s experience growing up in urban Baltimore. Rife with grit, heartbreak and the hardships as well as some gentle joys of adolescence, this book was gripping.

**The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America - Richard Rothstein**
In this powerful assessment of American urban history, we see how from the 1920s up to the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, the laws and policy decisions passed by many local, state and Federal governments unconstitutionaly contributed to de jure racial segregation in housing, planning and zoning. This legacy of structural racism continues to contribute to persistent racial unrest today.

**All We Can Save - Multiple Authors, edited by Ayanna Johnson and Elizabeth Wilkerson**
Looking forward to this coming out on September 22. A book of “provocative and illuminating essays from women at the forefront of the climate movement who are harnessing truth, courage, and solutions to lead humanity forward.” https://www.allwecansave.earth/

#### Matthew Moroney
**Skin in the Game - Nassim Nicholas Taleb**
The latest from the author who inspired me to study data, Taleb tells us that if you don’t have skin in the game, you shouldn’t be playing. Raise Green helps us all get in the game as investors or project creators.

**Dancing in the Streets - Barbara Ehrenreich
**
Using the history of collective dance, we learn how systems of power try to stamp out spontaneous celebrations. But exuberance cannot be held back. In confronting the challenges of our projects and the problems they stare down, we take solace in the beauty of spontaneous celebrations with our friends, neighbors, and strangers.

**Emergent Strategy - Adrienne Maree Brown**
Healing for self and communities amidst the challenges and elations of activism, inspired by esteemed science fiction author Octavia Butler. All our collective - originators, investors, friends, mentors, and believers - need to stay strong and heal in the fight against global warming, air pollution, and income inequality.

#### Jackie Logan

**Where the Crawdads Sing - by Delia Owens**
A window in life beautiful marshes of North Carolina in the 1950's and 1960's, from the vantage point of a girl, Kya, left to bring herself up for the most part from the age of 6, and how she navigates incredibly poor, uneducated, with no family support. Weaving back and forth in time, around an unsolved murder in the town. Captivating, moving, and inspirational.

#### Megan Schleck

**The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett**
In this fictional NYT best seller, Brit Bennett shares a story of twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white. Clever and timely, it was a riveting read.

**How to be an Antiracist- Ibram X. Kendi**
Ibram X. Kendi's concept of antiracism reenergizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America--but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. Instead of working with the policies and system we have in place, Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it. 

**How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight- Jane Yolen & Mark Teague**
A fun book with exceptional illustrations to introduce our 3-month old to the concept of sleep.

#### Jackson Enright 
**This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate - Naomi Klein **
Naomi Klein, author of bestsellers including The Shock Doctrine and the more recent On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal, pits capitalism against climate change in this book. Klein outlines why free-market capitalism will fail to address the climate crisis, as well as how the chance to fix our fossil-fuel powered economy is also an opportunity to fix the ongoing failures of our democracies and economies. 

**Superpower: One Man’s Quest to Transform American Energy - Russell Gold **
A book that provides a detailed exploration of Michael Skelly’s renewable energy journey, along with all of the political, economic, and social obstacles he encounters along the way. For those wondering how some huge renewable energy farms get built, look no further.

**Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow - Yuval Noah Harari**
Yuval Noah Harari looks to the future on his most recent prospective on the human race. A great read that begs the question: what does it mean to be human? It is necessary to reflect and consider our actions as we contemplate the technological advancements that will bring far-reaching changes to Earth and its inhabitants.

#### Payton Bennett
**A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind - Harriet A. Washington**
This book, by Harriet A. Washington, looks into the destructive consequences of environmental racism, including the effects that it can have on a person’s IQ. It also discusses potential solutions to remediating the communities that are disproportionately affected by climate change. A very important and informational read!

**The Quest - Daniel Yergin**
Daniel Yergin is a leading energy expert and author of the Pulitzer prize-winning book, The Prize. This book explains how energy is at the center of all global political, social, and economic change. Yergin identifies key issues within our energy systems and the new emerging energies that are replacing old technologies, and gives an insightful look into our clean energy future.

#### Emilly Fan
**The Age of Sustainable Development - Jeffrey D. Sachs**
By world-renowned economist, this book presents a compelling and practical framework for how global citizens can use a holistic way forward to address the seemingly intractable worldwide problems of persistent extreme poverty, environmental degradation, and political-economic injustice: sustainable development. It offers the tools, metrics, and practical pathways needed to achieve Sustainable Development Goals and helps to inform, inspire, and spur action. 

**Energy and Climate: Vision for the Future - Michael B. McElroy**
This book is a broad and comprehensive introduction to the issue of energy and climate change intended to be accessible for the general reader. It covers energy basics, a discussion of the energy systems of the US and China, and also the debate regarding climate change. The perspective is global but with a specific focus on the US and China recognizing the critical role these countries must play in addressing the challenge of global climate change. 

#### Chandler Johnson
**Climate Change from the Streets - Michael Mendez**
Michael Mendez explains the power behind location  and the inequalities of climate change. He explores the perspectives and the influence that low-income people of color bring to their advocacy work on climate change. Mendez contends that we must incorporate local knowledge, culture, and history into policymaking to fully address the global complexities of climate change and the real threats facing our local communities.

**Whose Water is it Anyway?: Taking Water Protection into Public Hands - Maude Barlow**
Maude Barlow, also known as one the world’s most notable water justice activists includes a detailed plan on how to help prevent communities from going dry due to the actions of irresponsible companies and governments.

#### Ryan Allen
**The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor - William Easterly **
The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor is a 2014 book by the development economist William Easterly arguing that there are no silver bullets for promoting economic development and that the best hope is to support economic, political, and personal freedom worldwide. William Easterly was also a professor of mine in my final semester at NYU. This book served as reading material for the class. I found it an engaging and insightful look into the world of foreign aid and the underlying structures that inhibit successful outcomes in developing countries. 

**The Road - Cormac McCarthy**
The story of a father and son living in a post apocalyptic America journeying through the country to reach the coast. The bond between a father and his son is nearly all that remains in a ravaged world. The Road asks us all to think about the future world we want for ourselves and for our children. It is particularly relevant today as if the world does not make collective changes in the name of saving our climate, the future in The Road, just may be ours as well. 


2020 Summer Reading List

Raise Green’s Summer Reading List

# How to invest in your first solar project

On Wednesday July 8th, we hosted an Impact Investor Webinar that explained our investor marketplace in detail. Feel free to [check out our list of available investment opportunities here](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/offers/offersList)! We talked about why investing with Raise Green matters and how prospective investors can get started today. 

The investor process can be simplified into five crucial steps: 

1. Create an account
2. Pick a project 
3. Review an investment opportunity
4. Invest and back a project 
5. Watch your impact grow

If you missed out, feel free to check out the [recording of the webinar here](https://youtu.be/UFL8OfojFUI). We also received some great questions from prospective investors that we would like to share with you all! We picked six of our favorites and provided detailed answers below. 

If you have any questions unanswered in the video or our answers below, please reach out to us at [info@raisegreen.com](mailto:info@raisegreen.com). We believe that investing in the right thing should be easy, and we aim to make sustainable impact investing as affordable and accessible as possible, so please provide feedback to help us accomplish this goal. 

To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please consider signing up for our email [list](http://eepurl.com/dFst3T) and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)). 

**6 Questions from prospective Investors: **

*What is the lifetime of a solar project, and how will the returns from a project be delivered to an investor? *

Solar projects can generate electricity for 15-40 years or more. We typically define the lifetime of a solar project as the lifetime of a contract to purchase electricity, referred to as a power purchase agreement (PPAs). PPA’s normally last somewhere between 15-30 years. However, the solar asset itself (the panels and inverters) may be generating electricity longer than that. 

Regarding returns, we look for projects that are projected to deliver at least 5% return or more to investors. The length of the returns vary by investment opportunity,  as each has different return profiles. All of these types of details will be described in depth for each security on the investment details page for you to review before deciding to invest! 

We recommend you be as educated as possible on the risks of investing, as each project is unique in their opportunity for return. 

*How does the contracted cash flow from a project get divided between investors, Raise Green, and the Project Creator team? Are they fixed by the platform or set up on a per project basis? *

We strive to be fully transparent about fees and costs associated with creating a project, or investing in one. Raise Green is also an investor and equity holder in every equity project on our platform, so we are also motivated to see each project succeed! 

Each project’s cash flow may vary in accordance with the project or company type. Typically the owner of the project (Creator) retains 10-15% equity in the project and the investor community would own the remaining equity of the project. Additionally, if a project raises money successfully, Raise Green collects a platform listing fee (5% of the raise). 

*What states do you plan to have projects in, and are there any restrictions on investor’s locations to invest in projects? *

Raise Green is a FINRA Member and is licensed with the SEC to sell and issue securities nationwide, which allows us to host projects and help raise capital for any U.S. company. Investors nationwide are welcome to invest in any project. We are excited to provide access to capital to anyone who is interested in leading a project and is looking for national attention and funding. Check out our [Originator Program ](https://www.raisegreen.com/originator-program)for more information!

*What are the options for an investor wanting to exit a project? Particularly in the case of an equity funded project? (how do investors sell their shares)*

Similar to venture investing, there is currently no secondary market for selling the shares you purchase. When you buy equity in a project you are committing to being an investor for the project’s lifetime. While there is not currently a secondary market set up, it is possible to resell your shares if you can find a willing buyer, and in most cases investors will be able to sell shares openly within one year, or transfer shares to family members or other financial organizations. 

*Can we use a self-directed IRA account to invest in these investment opportunities?*

Yes, but it is easier for some self-directed IRA accounts as compared to others. Please reach out to us at [info@raisegreen.com ](mailto:info@raisegreen.com)and we would be happy to look at your individual circumstances to see if it is a possibility. 

*If a project is funded, is your initial investment the limit for the project, or can there be a further pro-rata call for capital, if the project creator under-estimated the project cost?*

When we structure the investment opportunity with the project creator we do our best to include all the industry standard costs that you would expect, in addition to an amount of buffers for unexpected costs. An additional pro-rata capital call would depend on the particular investment, but is not typical. A more likely situation would be a successful creator funding their 2nd or 3rd project at a later point in time, in which past investors would have another investment opportunity! 

Raise Green prides ourselves on our due diligence, as we use the same infrastructure and financial models used at large investment banks. You can read more about the criteria we use to assess project opportunities and costs, as well as read more about each of these important educational topics in our [FAQ](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/offers/offersList). 


How to invest in your first solar project: 6 Q&A’s from our Impact Investor Webinar

6 Q&A’s from our Impact Investor Webinar

6 Q&A's from our Impact Investor Webinar

We’re ecstatic to see the first available offering on Raise Green’s marketplace go live. We started this journey with the idea of creating a platform that would allow anyone to join the fight against climate change. That means making it easy for anyone to start their own clean energy or climate resilience project - and making it easy for anyone to become investors in those projects. 

When you think about individual action, a lot of the easiest paths you can take center around the little things, like improving the efficiency of the energy you consume. To quote one of our favorite essays, Amory Lovins’ said  “the cheapest kilowatt hour is the one never used.” That’s why we're starting with the National Energy Improvement Fund (NEIF) as our initial investment opportunity. NEIF’s focus is on creating opportunity for energy efficiency and resilience for residential and commercial buildings, providing financing for essential energy and resilience improvements like heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, roofing, lighting and battery storage, which make homes and businesses more resilient, efficient, healthy and comfortable and helps contractors grow their businesses.

We’re excited to continue to host many more investment opportunities  to come - of varying investment amounts, project types, and community involvement. That’s what makes Raise Green truly special. Anyone that has an idea and the determination to make their project a reality can do so with our platform. Our clean energy future will be built by everyday people - everyday people deserve to create and own that future.  

Climate change is the biggest collective problem that humanity has ever faced. But as we have seen with recent Black Lives Matter protests, the COVID-19 lockdown, and economic turmoil: unrest incited from massive collective action issues can be converted into meaningful action - and ultimately big change. 

Make no mistake: Raise Green is here to facilitate big change. 

While Raise Green is just one piece of a much more comprehensive solution to climate change, it also doubles as an avenue for communities and individuals to join hands together in building the future that we want. A future that is centered around just, equitable, and sustainable practices. The time for inclusive finance and egalitarian business solutions is now. Join Raise Green in the fight against climate change. You can [invest today on our marketplace. ](https://marketplace.raisegreen.com/offers/offersList)

To get the most up-to-date information on Raise Green content, please consider signing up for our [email list](http://eepurl.com/dFst3T) and follow any of our social accounts ([Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/raisegreeninc/), [Twitter,](https://twitter.com/RaiseGreenInc) [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/RaiseGreenInc/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/raisegreen/)). 

*~Franz Hochstrasser & Matt Moroney*


Founder reflections: The road to our first offering

Founder Reflections: The road to our first offering

Like many entrepreneurs before us, our early business plans had a lot of twists and turns. For Raise Green, those twists and turns were quite literal since our first business involved making air pollution sensors that live-tweeted from the handlebars of bikes...



Our progress

Our Founding Story

Raise Green Blog

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