The Sustainable Finance Hub: A Game Changer for Pittsburgh and the Surrounding Region

Heartland's Managing Director, Tom Croft, highlighted the pivotal role of the Sustainable Finance Hub in accelerating clean energy initiatives across Pittsburgh, emphasizing the importance of collaboration between local leaders like Summer Lee and Sara Innamorato to drive the region toward a greener future.

Below are his opening remarks.

I would like to start with a heartfelt thanks to the speakers and all of you who have joined us today, especially 

• Congresswoman Summer Lee, 

• County Executive Sara Innamorato, and 

• IBEW International Rep Ed Hill, Jr.  

And thanks to SVA’s Board Chair Lori Schmidt, and our staff team at the SVA, including Carrie Mihalko, our COS, and Will Bernstein, the Project Director for the Finance Hub, as well as Ama Germaine, Alaa Mohammed, and Rebecca Kiernan and her friends at CONNECT, which is working on an amazing EV charging station project in the region.

Finally, thanks to John Neurohr of Clear Point Communications and the Climate Action Campaign.

You know the story of 5 decades or more of economic decline and population loss in Pittsburgh, the Mon Valley, and Industrial Appalachia. 

We want to tell a new story.

When the SVA built the Strategic Early Warning Network, or SEWN, funded by the Commonwealth of PA, saving 35,000 manufacturing jobs over 40 years, we knew that, unlike some of the powers-that-were, who thought that Pittsburgh could survive on service and tourism jobs, manufacturing supply chains would be critical to our economy and  a real jobs recovery. 

Today, we are seeing that new story unfold. 

When the SVA and Steelworkers launched the Heartland Network, it led to billions of dollars of workers pension dollars in rebuilding our cities, renewing the industrial commons, and growing the clean economy.  Today, these investors have capitalized over a hundred million dollars alone in Pittsburgh  — such as the Encore Building, the Strip Terminal Building, and many other union projects.

When Cincinnati  built, with a IBEW workers, the largest solar farm east of the Mississippi, and built it in Highland County, an Appalachian county, it was a model that our former Pittsburgh mayor and nine other mayors in the region endorsed — bringing urban and rural communities back together to share the benefits of the clean energy revolution.  We called our plan the Marshall Plan for Middle America.

And I’m happy to say that this new story — solar, wind, renewable power, EV vehicles and charging networks, electric buses, efficient affordable, multi-family housing, micro-grids, and, yes, revitalized manufacturing, is being retold over and over in Pennsylvania, Southern Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and West Maryland.  US DOT just announced $2.5 million in EV projects for the City of Pittsburgh, working with Duquesne Light.

We are proud to be working with the Appalachian Regional Commission — the ARC — in standing up a five state Appalachian Sustainable Finance Hub, an effort to harness pension funds and banks in the region, promote responsible procurement among cities and rural communities, universities and anchor institutions, and restore the greatness to a region that suffered so much these many years.  

SVA and Heartland is conducting a one-year planning project to accelerate sustainable economic development in mid and upper Appalachia. Through strategic partnerships, financial innovation, and capacity building, a Sustainable Finance Hub will help communities generate and retain quality jobs, and build a diversified, resilient and clean economy.

We’ve had one overriding vision — can we, together, create a sustainable industrial policy that will rebuild Pittsburgh and the Mon Valley, Appalachia, America and leave no worker left behind?  

I think we are on the cusp of that vision, and the new federal clean energy and economy programs like the IRA, Infra Act, and Greenhouse Reduction Fund will build the foundation for a new good jobs economy.  Heartland’s pension-capitalized investors and CDFIs and other investors have joined us in that endeavor.

According to the Ohio River Valley Institute and the DOL, there are 76 IRA powered clean energy power projects in our region, including 57 in pre-development. The 57 clean energy projects include 33 solar, 20 hydroelectric, two wind, and two battery storage projects.  32 of these pre-construction clean energy projects are in “energy communities” that have been reliant on fossil fuels that are eligible for bonus tax credits. 

Altogether, these 57 clean energy projects are over $5 billion in capital investments and will create between 3,400 to 9,300 construction jobs.  Manufacturing jobs are also booming. These projects are potentially eligible for federal tax credits of up to $2.5 billion for the region.

Our five-state region is home to nearly $1 trillion dollars in workers’ retirement savings, college endowments, and other endowments.  If our funds and banks invested 10% of that capital in clean infrastructure alone, that would amount to $100 billion.  If we invested just a portion of that in profitable projects and firms in Industrial Appalachia, matched with federal funds, we could marshal the real capital needed to rebuild our communities and provide a home and hope for future generations.

We’re challenging the capital stewards of our assets to meet the moment and set aside 10% for our country, our region, our future, and our region.  We’re hoping to win an ARC Implementation award to further this work.  We’re inviting you to join us in this grand endeavor to bring back the communities that helped build America.

Please find a full recording of the event HERE.