Washington, DC—The Board of Directors of the Coalition for Green Capital (CGC) today elected Bryan Garcia as the new Board Chairman. Mr. Garcia joined the board in 2021 and has served as President and CEO of Connecticut Green Bank for over a decade. Garcia was program director for the Yale Center for Business and the Environment and developed a global program responsible for preparing environmental leaders for business and society.
Reed Hundt, former Chair and CGC’s current CEO said, “Bryan Garcia’s leadership and experience throughout the green bank movement will contribute to our success as a national green bank and result in significant clean energy benefits for everyone. I speak for the whole board and I am sure all our sub-awardees and partners in expressing gratitude to Bryan for taking on this role.”
Bryan Garcia, President and CEO of the Connecticut Green Bank, and newly elected Chair of CGC said, “I am grateful to Reed, and honored by the Board of Directors of CGC, for electing me to serve in this capacity as we look ahead to advancing the green bank model to every community across our country. At this important moment in our country, our collective efforts to confront climate change can only be met with our actions to mobilize investment into our low-income and disadvantaged communities.”
Lonnie Reed, Chair of the Connecticut Green Bank and former Co-Chair of the Energy and Technology Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly said, “When we created the Connecticut Green Bank, we needed an entity focused on attracting private investment into the ambitious bipartisan public policies we were advancing. Bryan built an amazing team of people committed to that mission. I have every confidence that in his new role as Chair of CGC, Bryan will bring that same successful sense of purpose to the whole country.”
Roger Dower, CGC Board Member, Lead Independent Director, and Former President of the Johnson Foundation at Wingspread said, “Bryan is the right person for the job. Throughout the summer, Bryan worked tirelessly alongside the CGC team, board of directors, partners, and members of the American Green Bank Consortium to improve the governance structure and prepare the organization to become the national green bank.”
The Connecticut Green Bank is a member of the American Green Bank Consortium and a partner alongside hundreds of community organizations and lenders in support of CGC’s applications to the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund which will be filed on Thursday, October 12, 2023.
About the Coalition for Green Capital
The Coalition for Green Capital, operating as the American Green Bank Consortium, is a 501(c)(3) organization specifically chartered to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, combat other forms of air pollution, and address climate and energy-related environmental injustice. Green banks are a proven finance model that utilizes public and philanthropic funds to mobilize private investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other decarbonization technologies. For over a decade, the Coalition for Green Capital has been at the forefront of the Green Bank movement, collaborating at the federal, state, and local levels in the U.S. and internationally.
Learn more at https://coalitionforgreencapital.com
About the Connecticut Green Bank
The Connecticut Green Bank was established by the Connecticut General Assembly in 2011 as the nation’s first state-level green bank and has since supported the creation of more than 27,000 green jobs in the state while reducing the energy cost burden on nearly 70,000 families, businesses, and nonprofits. The Green Bank’s vision is a planet protected by the love of humanity, and its mission is to confront climate change by increasing and accelerating investment into Connecticut’s green economy to create more resilient, healthier, and equitable communities. This is accomplished by leveraging limited public resources to scale up and mobilize private capital investment into Connecticut. In 2017, the Connecticut Green Bank received the Innovations in American Government Award from the Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation for their “Sparking the Green Bank Movement” entry. To date, the Green Bank has mobilized over $2.4 billion into the State’s green economy. This has reduced the energy costs for thousands of families and businesses, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change and worsen public health.
Learn more at https://ctgreenbank.com
Bryan Garcia is the president and CEO of the Connecticut Green Bank – the nation’s first state-level green bank. The “green bank model” demonstrates how smarter use of public resources can attract more private investment in the green economy – reducing energy burden on families and businesses, creating jobs in local communities, increasing the deployment of clean and resilient energy, improving public health, and confronting climate change. With its message of “Inclusive Prosperity”, the Green Bank won the “Innovations in American Government Award” in 2017 from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. Through its design of retail accessible Green Liberty Bonds, modeled after the War Bonds of the 1940s, the Green Bank won the “Innovative Financing” category from The Bond Buyer in 2020.
Before joining the Green Bank, Garcia was program director for the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. At Yale, Garcia led efforts to develop a leading global program responsible for preparing environmental leaders for business and society. Prior to Yale, he served as Connecticut’s Climate Change Coordinator where he supported the Governor’s Steering Committee on Climate Change. Early in his career, he was a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer specializing in NGO capacity building and environmental education in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
In addition to his professional responsibilities, Bryan serves on the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board and the Yale School of the Environment Leadership Council. He is on the Board of Directors of the Energy Foundation, Coalition for Green Capital, and Center for Sustainable Energy.
He holds a BS degree in political economy of natural resources from Berkeley, an MPA in public and non-profit administration from NYU Wagner, an MBA in finance from NYU Stern, and a MEM degree from the Yale School of the Environment.
Bryan lives in Cromwell with his husband, Paul Schneider.
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