Connecticut Green Bank – Arjun Malhotra – 2024
SummaryArjun initiated a waste and recycling primer identifying policy and market conditions as well as opportunities for the Connecticut Green Bank to scale solutions to organic waste management.GoalsIn 2021, the Connecticut state legislature expanded the Connecticut Green Bank’s mission from financing clean energy to also include environment infrastructure. Supporting the new environmental infrastructure business unit, Arjun Malhotra initiated a primer development process on scaling up solutions to organic waste management. The primer distills existing policy conditions and current capital resources, assesses potential market solutions, and identifies key opportunities for the Green Bank.SolutionsArjun started the primer development process by identifying and understanding federal and state-level policy priorities and financing opportunities for organic waste. This was followed by enumerating different solutions across the EPA food waste hierarchy and interviewing solutions providers in Connecticut to understand operational challenges and their future outlook. Key government stakeholders were then engaged to discuss policy priorities, funding initiatives, and learnings from municipal pilot programs. Using the information gathered through desk research as well as interviews with key stakeholders, Arjun mapped out the current status, market potential, and opportunities for the Green Bank across the three focus areas identified in the EPA Food Waste Hierarchy framework.Potential ImpactArjun provides a roadmap of market potential and opportunities that aligns with the policy priorities of the state and aims to support solutions to the current challenges in the organic waste sector. The Connecticut Green Bank can use the roadmap to extend existing financial products to invest in scaling solutions. This primer will help the Green Bank strategize how best to contribute towards Connecticut’s goal of increasing food waste diversion from 9.3% to potentially 41% and reducing reliance on out of state facilities for municipal solid waste management.
