Ceres

“Collaborative Capital: The Multiplier Effect for Clean Energy” frames a working forum on coordinating investment across public, private, and philanthropic sectors and addressing systemic clean-energy financing challenges. The program combines plenary discussions, facilitated small-group problem solving, and breakouts. Small-group topics include state policy blueprints, low- and moderate-income financial access, tax-credit monetization, the clean-energy capital stack, virtual power plant valuation, local alignment to reduce soft costs, financing data-center growth, solar finance in low-incentive markets, resilience and outage avoidance, first-of-a-kind project financing, turning small projects into investable portfolios, liquidity for CDFIs and green banks, Indigenous and rural capital access, early-stage geothermal exploration, and utility capital for flexible capacity with equitable benefits. Breakouts address how state and local green banks use public seed funding to attract private lenders; philanthropic impact investing and program-related investments; community ownership and retaining wealth locally; philanthropic guarantees and credit enhancements; financing grid modernization, battery storage, and microgrids in disaster-prone regions; and clean-energy finance amid AI-driven growth. The program also includes innovation spotlights. David Crane, CEO of Generate Capital, gives the opening keynote; Amir Kirkwood, CEO of Justice Climate Fund, gives a keynote; and Elizabeth Mahony, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, gives the closing keynote. The forum follows the Chatham House Rule, and solicitation of funding is not permitted.

The program covers corporate sustainability strategy across finance and the business case, communications, organizational change, data and disclosure, AI tools, decarbonization, supply chains, nature, and circular systems. Its Energy and Water programs add sessions on corporate energy procurement, grid flexibility, and water stewardship. Listed sessions address battery storage and flexible power; clean-energy procurement amid uncertainty; hourly energy matching; building decarbonization; corporate AI’s carbon costs; critical-material sourcing and material recovery for supply-chain resilience; circularity’s business case; Scope 3 supplier engagement; water risk and corporate balance sheets; AI and water stewardship; and collective action on the Colorado River. Other sessions cover regenerative agriculture, nature finance, sustainability disclosure, and communicating sustainability to policymakers and markets. The event also lists a keynote, tutorials, breakouts, workshops, and an Advanced Perspectives Program.