Scott Chaplan Leads Capacity Building Series

Scott Chaplan, Executive Chair of the Urban Group of Companies, was a featured speaker at "The How To's of Faith and Community-Based Non Profit Development & Management" lecture held at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Los Angeles Branch. The event was presented by the Levital Network Education Foundation and took place on Thursday, April 30 in dowtown Los Angeles.

Mr. Chaplan, an active faith based and non-profit practitioner who serves on numerous boards of such groups in Los Angeles, has spent 15 years building the Urban Group of Companies into a diversified equity investment and services company with 104 employees and over 40 properties within 5 states. Urban companies that directly serve the faith-based and non-profit spaces include Urban Seminars and Urban Consulting.

Mr. Chaplan, a lawyer by training, was a panelist for the first seminar, "Non-Profit Development - Understanding the Procedure, Purpose & Principles" on which he spoke of the legal purposes for incorporating a non-profit organization, whether sacred or secular, and the procedures and principles that should guide an organization through the process. He brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the discussion, having helped form and having served on the founding boards of directors of several secular and faith-based non-profit organizations.

Green Jobs for a Green Economy

The US Green Building Council has a great resource for understanding and enhancing the creation of jobs through sustainable building, especially the LEED Program. Check it out here, and at the Green Economic Recovery Resources page

- Norris Lozano

The second bottom line at work: Green Jobs in California

This story in the Sacramento Bee highlights the importance of developing the green economy in California. A huge wind farm in Solano County was just unveiled last Thursday. Shiloh II will has the capacity to deliver 150 megawatts of electricity through its 75 massive GE wind turbines, each of which is 30 stories tall and can generate 2 megawatts of power per day. The Bee story was a bit about renewable power and a lot about the power of the green economy to renew lives.

An interesting side story to the launch of the wind farm was that renewable power was also used to power the event. Take a look at this news footage (and here) and note first that the stories feature those who were laid off in the finance and real estate industries, and were able to find work in renewable energy.

In the first, note where each of the interviews takes place: in front of Mobile Solar Power Systems(TM) that were provided by Pure Power Distribution of Santa Monica, another example of the green economy putting people to work.

New Markets Tax Credits

Now that the NOAA (Notice of Allocation Availability) has been published for the seventh annual round of the New Markets Tax Credits program, we and our tax credit industry colleagues share optimism amidst concern in the current economic environment. Tax credit investors require profits to claim the credits, and profits at many of the industry's biggest investors have fallen precipitously. Some of the biggest industry participants are out of the market altogether.

We are encouraged, however, to see that the 2008 allocation round may be enhanced retroactively by $1.5 billion, and the 2009 round may be enhanced by $1.5 billion as well.  This demonstrates the government's confidence in the program, in which Community Development Entities have raised $12.6 billion in equity since its inception in 2002. 

We support the NMTC program wholeheartedly, as even a relatively moderate allocation (by program standards) of $11 million in NMTCs has proven to be strong fertilizer for projects in some of the most economically underserved areas of South Los Angeles, namely the Bethany Square project. Bethany Square and other projects in the immediate area will only succeed with the kind of private investment enhancement that NMTCs provide. 

Green Jobs Create Economic Energy

In a recent story, "Up on the Roof, New Jobs in Solar Power", the New York Times reports strong economic activity in the renewable energy sector. And despite the downturn, many in the industry predict continued growth. 

Barry Cinammon, CEO of Akeena in California, anticipates that his solar business "will increase 40 percent from last year."

This anecdotal evidence corroborates what The Solar Energy Industries Association reports in its "Blueprint for Job Creation and Economic Security", (updated December 11, 2008) which outlines how the solar industry, in particular, has the potential to create "more jobs, per Megawatt, than any other source of energy."

The jobs potential for renewable power industries is especially strong in the inner city, according to Van Jones of the Ella Baker Center who, along with Majora Carter of the Majora Carter Group has started an organization called Green for All. 

Green For All is a strong proponent of "green collar jobs" which can be channeled and encouraged in the inner city, which has a disproportionately high unemployment rate - and therefore a high number of trainable men and women who are ready to work in all facets of growing renewable energy industries - manufacture, installation, design, sales, leasing, you name it.

Check out the Green Jobs Guidebook that was created in collaboration between the Environmental Defense Fund and the Ella Baker Center.

 - - Norris Lozano

Governor Schwarzenegger sets Renewable Portfolio Standard target

We commend California Governor Schwarzenegger for his effort to streamline the permitting process for renewable energy solutions in California. Last week, the Governor signed Executive Order S-14-08 to "compel the California Energy Commission and the Department of Fish and Game to work more closely on dealing with conflicts between renewable energy developers and environmentalists over building power plants and transmission lines." The story was reported across the state and the nation, as it also raises the requirement for utilities to provide 33 percent of utilities' electrical power to come from renewable sources by 2030. The current law requires 20 percent by 2010. With this new law, California jumps further to the fore in the renewable energy field which, by many predictions, has the potential to generate thousands of new "green collar" jobs in the United States.

- Norris Lozano

Heal the Bay, South LA

Heal the Bay is an organization I have been interested in for some time. It was founded on the simple premise that Santa Monica Bay, which in 1985 was suffering from some of the highest levels of contamination found anywhere among US coastal waters, represented the health of the entire ecosystem of the area. Heal the Bay, Heal our City, is the underlying message. They have a great website, a huge membership, and do excellent research and community outreach.

On its website, Heal the Bay highlights a positive development from the LA City Council earlier this month. City Council has passed three far-reaching ordinances: Low Impact Development, Green Building and Drought Tolerant Landscaping. In the context of Heal the Bay, these new ordinances pull our work at Urban Development & Finance into sharp focus.

Quoting the site, the ordinances rule that:

+ All new developments must install smart irrigation controllers for landscape irrigation
+ In 2010 all buildings above 10,000 square feet and greater must be LEED certified those developments above 25,000 square feet or higher than 75 feet must receive LEED Silver certification
+ All new developments must consume at least 15% less energy than required by 2005 state efficiency standards
+ A minimum of 75% of total landscaped area shall be plants that are drought-tolerant. Only 25% of the landscaped area can be turf.

Our goals for two significant projects in South LA (Montclair West Adams and Bethany Square) are to exceed these standards. And when we do, we hope the effects are felt all the way to the Coast.

- Norris Lozano