The Portland City Council today approved eight big-ticket grants by the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF), including funding for the city’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) to oversee a Clean Industry Community Program designed to reduce industrial emissions, air pollution and waste while also creating a workforce pathway for clean industry jobs.
Portland State University’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions, which has been involved in developing the program over the last year through a partnership with BPS, will continue to play a key role in moving the effort forward along with a bevy of other community stakeholders.
The Clean Industry Community Program will use $20 million in PCEF funds in partnership with PSU, BPS, Prosper Portland, the Portland Metro Chamber, Neighbors for Clean Air, Worksystems and Energy 350. Together, these organizations will develop and fund capital projects for efficient and renewable industrial technologies aimed at reducing the carbon emissions of Portland-area industries. By working alongside community-based nonprofits and workforce organizations, the program also aims to ensure that cleaner industries and related job opportunities benefit underserved neighborhoods across the city.
Portland’s industrial sector contributes 12% of the region’s emissions and as part of the program and its creation of one of the only clean industry hubs in the nation, participating industry partners have committed to eliminating 925,000 metric tons of carbon emissions and establishing a dashboard to ensure transparency. The program is modeled after a similar system in Denmark.
“Today is a big deal and it’s a really big step not just for PCEF but also for Portland,” said Commissioner Carmen Rubio during the Council meeting, who championed the Portland Clean Energy Fund during her time in city council. “What we are voting on today are truly transformational projects for Portland.”
As part of the $20 million grant, PSU’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions (ISS) will continue to facilitate collaboration across the university, local government, nonprofit and industry partners over the next five years. PSU faculty and students will conduct the analysis of the carbon and community benefits of funded projects to demonstrate their impacts.
“This is a perfect example of what the Institute for Sustainable Solutions does and the place we hold within Portland State and the city of Portland,” said Paul Loikith, ISS director. “Overall we know this is an area that holds great potential — industrial decarbonization is the last frontier of climate mitigation. It holds great potential for our students, too. Clean industry work is growing and there are new opportunities for jobs.”
ISS has deep experience working on collaborative projects with a variety of organizations to address the complex issues of sustainability and climate resilience. In recent months, ISS worked with the Columbia Corridor Collaborative to land a prize for clean energy development from the Department of Energy’s American Made Challenge Program. ISS is also working with Neighbors for Clean Air on a two-year project to work toward emissions reduction paid for by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Pollution Prevention Program.
“Through ISS, PSU has really become a connector in the clean industry space,” said Beth Gilden, the ISS associate director of regional partnerships and projects. “We create the structure and provide the facilitation so that public and private partnerships can be effective.”