Last year Governor Maura Healey announced the creation of the Massachusetts Community Climate Bank. The Community Climate Bank is the first example of a “Green Bank” in Massachusetts and will initially be focused on helping to finance the decarbonization of buildings and housing. The creation of this green bank takes a bold step towards Massachusetts meeting ambitious climate goals set out in law while also potentially improving affordability and accessibility of housing units during a housing crisis.

Governor Healey undertook this effort during her first year in office building upon years of legislative action combined with years of stakeholder activity building support for the concept all over the Commonwealth.

I first filed a bill to authorize a green bank in 2015 after nearly a year of legwork and research on this and similar green financing concepts in use throughout the country. Four years of building support and fine tuning the concept led to a near miss on successful action during the 2019-2020 legislative session.