Lynn von Koch-Liebert

TITLE

Head of Climate, Energy & Infrastructure, Lendistry

LOCATION

Sacramento, United States

ABOUT

Lynn is a leader in climate finance and community development, with a focus on ensuring underserved and frontline communities, businesses, organizations, and tribes have access to resources that support their vision for resilience, sustainability, and climate action. Lynn’s work spans policy creation, programme design, and fund administration, and now, in her role at Lendistry – a minority-led national Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) – she leads efforts to address one of the largest structural barriers faced by underserved communities seeking to participate in the climate transition: access to capital.

MOTIVATIONS

“I grew up in a part of the United States that was renowned for its natural beauty but was also exposed to long-standing pollution from uranium mining. Some of my earliest exposure to community engagement and environmental justice work stems back to watching our community successfully lobby for clean-up and remediation funding. The lived experience of the human impact, economic impact and environmental impact that can come from short-term planning or lack of community involvement from the onset launched me into a career focused on sustainable, responsible and community-driven development within the US and globally.

Over the last nine years I have had the unique opportunity to provide State of California public funding to finance community climate and resilience projects, learning a lot from the project sponsors along the way. However, through this work I have also seen how inequitable many of the systems are, and how each step is harder for certain communities. I continue to be focused on understanding where the roadblocks are and working actively to address the obstacles.

When the US made its largest investment in climate change through the Inflation Reduction Act, further committing 40% of the funds to underserved communities at the frontline of climate change, this seemed like the opportunity to be part of a national opportunity to help build up the systems, financial tools, and financial channels to help make this a success. Now at Lendistry I am part of a team working on solutions to provide catalytic capital to move clean-energy and climate projects and companies forward, as well as national efforts to crowd private funding into the market to ensure our transition is accelerated and equitable.”

IMPACT

Over the past nine years, Lynn has been involved in or led multiple initiatives designed to remove barriers and create systemic change for more equitable climate and resilience investments. Under her leadership, the following initiatives have had a significant impact:

• As Executive Director of the California Strategic Growth Council, Lynn launched the Connecting Communities Initiative, which coordinates partners nationally to identify barriers and solutions to meet the goals of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative. This initiative focuses on:
  • Piloting programmatic models for achieving climate goals through community-led programming.
  • Providing technical assistance to underserved communities to access US federal resources.
  • Leading policy initiatives to address systemic challenges, such as reimbursable grant structures.
  • Bringing private sector capital partners to the table to help finance gaps in community-oriented climate finance.
• In her current role at Lendistry, Lynn ensures small and mid-sized businesses and non-profit organizations have access to capital to participate in the clean energy and climate economy. “Access to capital is one of the most significant barriers faced by underserved and frontline communities, and Lendistry is laser-focused on solving this larger structural challenge,” says Lynn.
• Lynn played a key role in organising the Catalyst Conference, bringing together a wide array of stakeholders – including community members, federal partners, and private sector participants – to tackle the barriers within the climate finance ecosystem.

CHALLENGES

While Lynn’s initiatives have been impactful, they have faced significant challenges:

• One of the greatest obstacles has been overcoming the lack of coordination across various stakeholders, including community organizations, municipal partners, state/federal partners, private sector implementers, and philanthropic entities. Lynn’s approach to solving this included using a 101 mentality at the start of convenings, ensuring everyone had a basic shared understanding of the topics. This approach helped build trust and led to more collaborative and systemic solutions.
• Another challenge has been bridging the gap between community-driven projects and capital markets. The differences in terminology and information between the two sectors made it difficult to find common ground. Lendistry’s role as a CDFI helps bridge this divide by working at the community level while also engaging in private markets, translating needs, and mitigating perceived risks.
• A gap identified during the Connecting Communities Initiative was the limited availability of resources for project development in early stages. Lynn addressed this by leveraging Lendistry’s financial products and capital sources to provide gap financing at scale for small businesses, organizations, and non-profits.

GOALS

“The vision for Lendistry is to work quickly to help fill an existing market gap instrumental to the Inflation Reduction Act and Justice 40 goals – namely access to smaller and mid-size loans that are available at critical points in a project or business cycle, and that benefit underserved communities. By standardizing and getting to scale quickly, these resources can support businesses and communities in being able to participate in the rapidly growing and evolving climate and clean-energy space. The ultimate vision is that access to capital is not a major barrier for communities and companies building wealth, solving localized climate change challenges, and benefiting from the positive impacts this transition will bring.”

LYNN’S ADVICE

“It’s important to understand how all the pieces fit together. When looking at the bigger picture, don’t be intimidated by the terminology – it may seem complicated at first but becomes more straightforward as you learn the language. Partnerships are crucial; recognize your capabilities and know when to seek partners. Right now there is a lot of newness in this field, and no one has all the answers or can do everything alone. Working collaboratively will help us achieve our collective goals. Don’t hesitate to ask questions, seek help, or share your knowledge.”

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Lynn work with Lendistry and the Connecting Communities Initiative is paving the way for equitable climate finance. Here’s how you can support

• For businesses and investors: For businesses, consider what steps you can take to decarbonize or make your business more resilient and energy efficient. For investors, consider establishing sustainability funds or evaluating your underwriting and lending standards to incorporate climate and clean-energy lending into your offerings.
• For NGOs and policymakers: For NGOs, connect with advocacy groups and coordinating entities that are curating information about climate oriented funding that might be available for you. Look for Technical Assistance providers in this space also who can support you in advancing projects. For policy makers, public funds are finite and precious, work with your private sector partners to design climate finance programs to fill very specific gaps and crowd private funds in.
• For individuals and listeners: Learn more about what projects, technologies and solutions are in your area, either geographically or in your professional or academic areas of focus. Be a voice of support and optimism, particularly when there is a engagement process asking to hear from the public. Your voice matters and will help those doing the hard work of bringing together the community need, financing and expertise.

CONTACT

https://lendistrygreen.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/lendistry/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynn-von-koch-liebert-016a076/