Amalgamated Financial Corp. has appointed Nicole Steele as Director of Climate Partnership Banking and Emily Robichaux as Director of Climate Partnership Lending. This expert team will spearhead the bank’s initiatives to leverage the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (“GGRF”).
Steele, a nationally renowned leader with over 20 years of experience in clean energy, has focused on equitable deployment and workforce development. She played a key role in creating GGRF programmes such as the National Clean Investment Fund (“NCIF”), Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (“CCIA”), and Solar for All (“SFA”) at the US Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), and collaborated with the US Treasury on the Inflation Reduction Act’s solar tax credits, including the Low-Income Communities Bonus Tax Credit.
Most recently, Steele was the Program Manager for the Workforce and Equitable Access Team in the Solar Energy Technologies Office (“SETO”) at the US Department of Energy (“DOE”) and led the National Community Solar Partnership (“NCSP”), developing the Community Power Accelerator and other initiatives for the swift deployment of clean energy with meaningful impacts.
Meanwhile, Robichaux brings over fifteen years of experience in sustainable finance, energy access, and technology. She previously worked at Opportunity Finance Network (“OFN”), where she established the organization’s climate program. As Senior Vice President of Climate and Environmental Programmes, Ms. Robichaux played a pivotal role in OFN’s award-winning GGRF Clean Communities Investment Accelerator application, securing over $2 billion for community clean energy projects and building climate lending capacity for Community Development Financial Institutions (“CDFIs”).
Sam Brown, Chief Banking Officer, said, “I am thrilled to have this team of experts join us at Amalgamated Bank as we continue to lead by example and ramp up our efforts to support America’s transition to a clean energy economy. National efforts like the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund galvanize us to imagine a world where climate sustainability is within reach of all Americans, regardless of socioeconomic status or geography. Nicole and Emily join our roster of leaders who are already leveraging this vision and the financial system to drive climate justice.”
As a founding member of the UN Net Zero Banking Alliance and the first US bank to set net-zero targets validated by Science Based Targets Initiative (“SBTi”), Amalgamated is a leader in sustainable finance. The bank is Fossil Fuel-free certified, with 64% of its lending categorized as “High Impact” and 100% mission-aligned, including over $547 million in loans dedicated to Climate Protection and an additional $1.2 billion in Property Assessed Clean Energy assets.