With a loss of federal climate dollars, Missoula nonprofit seeks to bridge the gap

The story is produced by Montana Free Press/Mountain Journal in collaboration with Grist as part of the Report for America Local News Initiative.

A small crowd gathered in the outdoor lot at Home ReSource on a chilly October morning. Standing between pallets of repurposed lumber, stacks of lawn chairs, planter boxes, and rolls of fencing at the materials reuse store, the group’s eyes were drawn upward to a ground-mounted 115-panel solar array casting a long shadow across the yard. 

The Missoula nonprofit sells repurposed building materials and home improvement supplies in its indoor-outdoor warehouse space. Kelli Hess, Home ReSource’s executive director said Missoula’s sustainability hub has had a longtime goal to run the facility entirely on solar power. 

“Having solar installed and now fully functioning and powering our lights just is such an incredible way for us to continue to live our values of sustainability,” Hess said.

But this solar array almost didn’t happen. First, Hess explained, Home ReSource learned the roof wasn’t strong enough to hold the several-thousand-pound solar array so they’d have to install a ground-mounted system. That added to time and cost, and had them racing against the clock to capitalize on federal tax credits before they expired. Add in the rising cost of materials and they came up short. 

“We’re a true nonprofit,” Hess said. “We operate real, real tight in so many ways.” Hess thought that was it. The organization couldn’t afford to cover remaining costs and nearly shelved the project altogether. 

Home ReSource had pieced together funding from several sources: a seed grant from NorthWestern Energy, foundation matching funds and federal tax credits, but still found themselves $8,000 short. That’s when another nonprofit, Climate Smart Missoula, stepped in to bridge the gap. “It was a tipping-point moment for us,” Hess said. 

Now, the 60 kilowatt system powers 100% of Home ReSource’s facility. The array ensures utility costs remain low, provides shade and shelter from the elements for some of Home ReSource’s goods, and aligns with the organization’s mission. 

But this story isn’t unique to Home ReSource, especially since the Trump administration cancelled billions of dollars in funding from, the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, which had been the nation’s largest federal investment in curbing planet-warming emissions. Money and tax credits for everything from electric vehicles to heat pumps to solar arrays went away almost overnight, and it left many groups struggling to fill the void. 

Home ReSource’s final funding component came from Climate Smart Missoula’s Climate Catalyst Fund. “There’s such a challenge when upfront costs are high, even if the return on investment is great,” said Amy Cilimburg, Climate Smart’s executive director. “Even if they’re in the long term, even the medium term, it’s going to already have a payback, but still, how do you get that money up front?” 

The Catalyst Fund hopes to provide part of the solution. It consists of individual donations and funding from Clearwater Credit Union. Clearwater aims to be carbon neutral, meaning it offsets a business’s own planet-warming emissions by funding projects that reduce emissions elsewhere, like helping purchase heat pumps and calculating the lifetime emissions reductions that come from using a more efficient heat source. 

Climate Smart uses the fund to help make up the deficit on projects that lower planet-warming emissions. “It’s kind of like there’s the basic recipe,” Cilimburg said, “and it’s kind of like the Catalyst Fund is the suite of spices that you need to make the recipe work.” 

In light of recent federal policy changes, Cilimburg explained, Climate Smart has expanded the fund’s priorities. “We have the pullback of this federal funding [and] at the same time we have an increasing affordability crisis,” she said. “With prices higher and utility bills going only in one direction, now there’s an even greater need for supporting families and community members.”

The Catalyst Fund has been utilized to finance projects like Cornerstone Apartments, the Missoula Housing Authority’s low-income housing. During the design phase, the housing authority realized they lacked the budget to use energy-efficient heat pumps in its dozen one-bedroom units, and would have to settle for less efficient electric baseboard heaters, Cilimburg said. Those heaters are initially cheaper to install, but come with much higher utility costs in the long run, so Climate Smart covered the difference. 

“It’s kind of an exciting time for people to think about how do we address these challenging issues simultaneously, and so we can all benefit,” Cilimburg said. “It’s still the same idea of filling a gap, but the gap is just even that much more essential today given the pullback of other funding sources.”

In the vein of solving for multiple challenges, Climate Smart’s current campaign aims to raise enough money to buy a fleet of electric bikes for the Missoula YWCA. 

“We know that transportation is a huge barrier for a lot of lower income people in our community,” said Shanti Devins with Climate Smart Missoula. “Particularly women with families getting their kids places and getting to work. So, can we multi-solve for some of these problems we already know about, in a way that’s better for the climate?”