We develop clean energy projects that center climate justice and create strong community benefits. Our goal is to reinvest in healthy, economically resilient neighborhoods while meeting the needs of investors.
Project finance should work for the people it serves. Working Power develops clean energy projects that build wealth and power for people and communities. A collaborative platform for developing, financing, and owning local distributed energy assets for the long-term, Working Power brings together investors that are committed to sustainability with project development partners rooted in community, around a shared this of transformative impact at scale.
Established together with community partners and impact investors, Working Power was launched by Urban Ingenuity, a mission-based developer and financier of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects with a special focus on affordable housing, faith-based and non-profit organizations, and community-led economic development.
Based on years of deep transactional experience in building green, justice-centered, and resilient energy projects at the community level, Working Power is purpose-built for mission-based, non-profit, and community-led organizations, to meet local needs and advance the goals and priorities set by our partners.
The Working Power platform offers a suite of tools from legal and technical support for clean energy project development, to access to patient and well-priced capital to leave more resources in the hands of local partners, to shared ownership models that build wealth and deepen participation in economic development at the community level. Working with environmental justice, labor, and other front-line organizations, together with impact investors and philanthropy, builds power, ownership, and energy democracy.
Working Power is dedicated to responding to the climate crisis at the scale, scope and speed of the challenge, while centering justice and the full participation of and benefit to front-line communities at the forefront of economic transformation. Working Power’s first fund is an investment vehicle that catalyzes scale for community-owned solar in front-line communities.
With a focus on maximizing the “Impact Return on Investment”, this revolving loan fund overcomes barriers to efficient project development through construction period financing, streamlined access to capital at competitive terms, and simplified transaction structures that empower community partners with direct local ownership and delivers measurable environmental, social, and economic results for investors.
By blending market-rate capital with philanthropic and impact funds, this fund cuts project costs, accelerates the speed of deployment, and builds scaled project pipelines at higher volumes. The revolving fund structure provides significant leverage (over 10X) as philanthropic and impact capital circulates through multiple projects, to magnify impact and accelerate scaled project development.
The Working Power Impact Fund ensures that frontline communities participate fully in the economic benefits of the projects they create. Meeting the financial and technical needs of community-based project sponsors and investors without requiring the sale of locally generated assets to third party investors, the fund builds projects that leave behind a legacy of asset ownership, ongoing Community Benefit Dividends, and cost savings.
It’s time our actions rise to meet our ambition at the scale and speed of the climate justice challenge—rebuilding stronger communities, project by project, community by community, and brick by brick from the ground up.
Rebuilding the U.S. economy for climate solutions will drive trillions of dollars of new investment into rebuilding a new, just, and clean energy economy. These investments have the ability to strengthen communities, revitalize neighborhoods, and expand job access and economic opportunity through clean energy transition. But, these outcomes will not occur without intention, creativity, and resolve.
This requires overcoming long-standing structural barriers to low-and moderate-income communities and communities of color in accessing financing, building wealth, and owning assets. For far too long, these communities have been underinvested and excluded. Financing clean energy projects has been too complex, too slow, and too difficult for local community partners.
Working Power was formed to support local community ownership and ensures that project sponsors have the right tools, expertise, and financial resources to speed project development and scale impact. We provide integrated tools that meet the needs of investors for sophisticated asset management and auditable Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) impact, all through a structure that allows for local ownership and contractual commitments to provide community benefits that fund ongoing delivery of services to the local residents, minority-led business, and non-profit organizations that drive community-based project development.
Working Power is a collaboration among local front-line communities, environmental justice organizations, labor and workforce advocates, BIPOC-led businesses, impact investors, and philanthropy. We are working together to hasten the transition to a just clean energy economy, through scaled investment that builds wealth, opportunity, and economic inclusion.
Our Advisors draw from a powerful network of national and community leaders providing diverse sectoral expertise. Working Power will announce our Founding Advisory Committee in coming days, to support Working Power through an Environmental Justice Investment Committee, and in refining our financial models, expanding project-level investment opportunities, and achieving scaled impact with accountability for deep and lasting community benefits.
Working Power is a community development & financing platform built by Urban Ingenuity
