In this month’s CleanStart Perspectives webinar, Executive Director Thomas Hall hosted an in-depth conversation with three leaders shaping how climate innovators access capital in California: Rosa Hilmarsdottir Cucicea of River City Bank, and George McDaniel and Tamara Kohne of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s Climate Tech Finance program.

Together, they provided a rare look behind the scenes at how banks, public agencies, and startups collaborate to get emerging clean technologies deployed in the real world — and what founders must prepare for long before they walk into a lender’s office.

The Rise of “Climate Lenders” in California

Thomas opened the conversation by asking Rosa Cucicea to explain how banks like River City Bank developed specialized clean energy divisions. Rosa emphasized that while “a lender is a lender,” climate finance requires deeper expertise: “River City Bank happens to have a clean energy division… we focus on providing capital to clean energy-related companies.”

She noted that climate projects carry complexities not found in ordinary business lending: “There are other types of risks… technology risks, pricing and contractual risks… especially in project finance.”

For founders, this means lenders need clarity, data, and a grounded business plan.

How Climate Tech Finance De-Risks Early-Stage Companies

While banks evaluate risk, the Climate Tech Finance (CTF) program helps reduce it — especially for companies not yet “bankable.”

Tamara explained how the program begins with environmental and technical screening: “We confirm the technology indeed reduces greenhouse gas emissions… and that it’s past the demonstration phase.”

Once technical eligibility is confirmed, George and the finance leads step in: “Most small businesses only think about money about five minutes before they need it… we translate. We assess the strengths and weaknesses.”

CTF’s loan-guarantee structure reduces bank exposure: “It’ll cover up to 80% of the loan amount in case there is a loss… it reduces the exposure for the bank.” – Rosa

This makes it possible for banks to fund companies they otherwise couldn’t — especially those on the edge of being “bankable.”

What Founders Must Prepare Before Talking to a Lender

The panelists agreed: founders should focus on fundamentals, not flair.

Rosa emphasized the need for clear communication: “Have a good executive summary… what your company does, what your revenue stream is, what makes you different, and how you’re going to repay the loan.”

George reinforced the power of simplicity: “If you can summarize your technology, your dreams, your expectations, and your needs in one page… you’ll be ahead of 80–90% of people who go to a lender.”

Founders with only prototype revenue may still be early for lending — but validating customers and tightening financials can open the door over time.

A Proven Model: Big Impacts, Low Defaults

George highlighted the program’s strong track record: “$50 million disbursed… 23–24 deals… another 50 or 60 in the pipeline… and only one loss.”

Rosa added that companies often grow significantly after receiving support: “One of these companies could become very large… I love to get updates… six months from now, a year from now.”

Their collaborative approach is showing real results — for businesses, communities, and emissions reductions.

What This Means for Clean Tech Startups

If you’re a founder working in climate tech — hardware, software, mobility, energy, water, materials, agriculture — the message is clear:

• Engage early
• Bring clarity, not complexity
• Show traction, even small wins
• Understand your financial story

As George put it: “Everybody gets a plan.”
You don’t have to be perfect — you just have to be prepared. If you’re developing a climate solution, reach out to the experts from this session, especially Clean Tech Finance. They welcome outreach from founders.

If you want help preparing your materials or deciding when to approach lenders, CleanStart can help.

🎥 Watch the full webinar on CleanStart’s YouTube channel

There are some big changes coming next year in commercial building design for more energy efficiency. On September 25, we held a MeetUp to consider what other changes might be in the works, based on some challenges that were launched two decades ago to push the frontiers of what is possible. First, here is some background.

On January 1, 2026, the most recent Title 24 standards for new commercial buildings in California will go into effect, based on the 2025 Energy Code adopted by the California Energy Commission. Key updates include a greater emphasis on electric heat pump technology for space and water heating, requirements for electric-ready commercial kitchens, updated solar and battery storage standards for specific assembly buildings, and enhanced ventilation standards for improved air quality. New commercial properties must also meet rigorous standards for building envelope insulation and air sealing, high-efficiency lighting with automated controls, and optimized HVAC and ventilation systems.

These new standards are an echo of the similar changes made in Title 24 for residential buildings adopted by the Energy Commission in 2022, effective in 2023. These standards required new residential buildings to incorporate features like solar PV systems, battery storage readiness, and efficient heat pumps to improve energy efficiency and support electrification. These standards strengthen ventilation, improve insulation, and promote the use of demand-responsive technologies, with the overall goal of achieving California’s carbon neutrality by midcentury.

The more fundamental advances in making buildings more sustainable was the Living Building Challenge (LBC) launched in 2006 by the Green Building Council and now promoted by the Living Futures Institute. The idea was to move building design and operation from minimizing harm to the environment to one of making a positive contribution to the environment. LBC consists of seven performance categories, or “Petals”: Place, Water, Energy, Health + Happiness, Materials, Equity, and Beauty. Each Petal is subdivided into Imperatives. It goes far beyond what is required to get a building a LEED certification.

Here in Sacramento we have one of the 34 buildings around the world that was certified as meeting the Living Building Challenge. It is the headquarters of the ArchNexus architectural firm and is located at 10th and R Streets across from the Fox and Goose pub. We invited Erica McBride the operations manager for the building to give us an update on what has been learned from this Challenge.

ArchNexus now has offices in Salt Lake City as well as Sacramento, in a much larger 30,000 square foot building. They have 95 professionals and are involved with close to 50 projects, mostly in the Western US. The projects have mostly been in consulting and design of sustainable features for buildings.

For their two headquarters buildings, they have achieved the goals around producing more energy than they use and in providing a comfortable working environment. The economic justification for these features was made easier with the dramatic uptick in utility prices recently with more estimated for the future. The use of natural lighting and having doors and windows that open to let in the outside air turned out to be key ways to reduce electricity use, more than expected.

In contrast, the features surrounding the capture of rainwater, reuse of greywater, and minimizing disposal of blackwater have involved a lot of plumbing and innovations that have needed more maintenance than expected. Also some innovations were needed to meet the goal of producing more water than was consumed. In general the water saving features have been hard to justify economically because in the West water is so inexpensive, ironically.

Innovations that come from challenges like the ones for living buildings often drift back into standards for all new buildings, so this is an area to watch. Take a look at Erica’s slides here. 

Please join us for our future MeetUps where we explore a wide range of topics concerning opportunities to create new companies and new products to see innovations spread.

Every quarter, Sacramento State’s Carlsen Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship hosts The Startup Challenge—a fast-paced, hands-on competition where teams build a company from scratch in just one weekend. Running in parallel with the Traction Cohort for existing ventures, the Challenge pushes participants to learn entrepreneurship by doing, not by talking about doing.
This fall’s event ran from Friday, September 26th through Sunday, September 28th, and drew more than 80 participants from across the region. Teams were formed Friday night, each with up to seven members, and had just 48 hours to test assumptions, validate markets, and build momentum.

A few years back, I won first place in the Carlsen Center’s Traction Cohort with my startup Purpurātus. The experience completely reshaped how I approach customer discovery. This time, I wanted to start from square one with a brand-new idea.
On Friday night, I pitched Site.AR — a service using image-to-3D modeling and existing blueprints to digitize heritage sites and monuments. Visitors could explore them in browser or VR/AR, with proceeds shared with those who maintain the real-world sites. It was ambitious and deeply personal — but no one joined the team.
Instead, I found myself with a group developing the Moonlight Design Collective, a design agency that hires recent graduates and architecture students to offer professional design services under mentorship, at a fraction of standard market rates. The idea: create work opportunities for new designers who are struggling due to lack of a portfolio, while providing affordable creative solutions to local businesses.

By Saturday morning, every team had their goals and business assumptions mapped out — and then the real work began. From 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., participants fanned out across Sacramento to test their ideas in the wild.
Collectively, over 500 customer interviews were conducted that weekend, testing more than 30 different business assumptions. Our team discovered that while potential clients were drawn to Moonlight’s low cost, they were equally — if not more — motivated by the opportunity to support local students and universities. It was a pleasant surprise, and it changed how we framed the value of our service. It was fun to have an excuse to go outside and do some light interviews with excited cofounders, and it was really fulfilling to see them get their first “a-ha” moments in person. It was really rewarding for everyone who went out.
Sunday was all about refining presentations and preparing for the final pitches. Each team had just three minutes to present their findings, followed by three minutes of questions from the judges.

After an evening of twenty presentations, the Moonlight Design Collective was announced as the first-place winner of the Startup Challenge. We worked really hard on the presentation, so I was really stoked to be rewarded for that! Most of the groups did fantastic, but I think we had an extra edge due to my experience coaching startups on their pitching/presenting.
For me, the experience was a powerful reminder that even as a returning participant, there’s always more to learn. I realized I’d grown a little too comfortable with my own assumptions — and this Challenge pulled me back to what matters most: testing ideas in the real world.
Entrepreneurship is about learning, iterating, and never letting yourself get complacent.

It was an absolute blast. I gave it my all, and couldn’t be happier with the result. The team I worked with will be continuing the project, so I know the prize money and in-kind resources are going to a great cause.

CleanStart is proud to partner with the Carlsen Center in fostering the next generation of innovators. While our primary focus is on clean tech and sustainable startups, we’ll never spurn an entrepreneurial spirit. Events like the Startup Challenge nurture that spark — giving emerging founders the tools, network, and confidence they need to take the next step, no matter the sector.
These are the programs that make Sacramento’s innovation ecosystem thrive.
I’ll be participating in these startup challenges more regularly, and would love to see you at the next one!

On September 17, we hosted 35 people at our MeetUp to talk about “Building EVs that People Want.” And it was more than a discussion. We co-hosted the event with the Sacramento Electric Vehicle Association (SacEV) and that meant we had 15 personal EVs on display which those members graciously agreed to bring. Some of them were even doing ride-and-drives.

Along with a selection of more common models we had many ones with which most people were not familiar. We had one new Cadillac Vistiq and a BMW iX SUV. One owner had a Cybertruck with a vinyl wrap that changed color from gold to green to purple depending on the angle of the sun. Wild. A common theme was the number of owners who had traded in their Teslas to get their new rides. Peter Mackin had his gorgeous Lucid that replaced his Tesla. Thomas had his Ford Maverick truck. There was one big F150 Lightning.

But two EVs were the hits of the show. The first was a brand new full-electric Dodge Charger with 500+ hp and a 3.3 second 0-60 time. It came with a simulated electronic version of the exhaust note of the ICE version. That was unexpected. It certainly addressed the segment of car owners that did not want to give up that ICE roar and the burnouts! It sounded and apparently can behave just like its gasoline cousin. It even has a transmission that shifts to preserve that feeling for the driver. Interestingly, Dodge deliberately got this electric model first with its sport, track, and drag setting options, then will be going for the ICE version and lastly would have a hybrid version. Time will tell if they read the market right for an electric muscle car. The one downside was that the full electric version had an estimated range of 280 miles, which seemed short.

The second big reveal was the all-new 2026 Nissan Leaf. In fact, a dealer diverted it from a delivery in Southern California just to let us ogle it. Then, zip, back on the truck and on the road. The important point about the car is it signals where EVs may be heading. It features a 75 kWh battery pack (although not LFP) that could give a 280 mile range, active cooling of the battery pack (instead of the passive cooling in the older Leaf models) that will extend battery life, fast direct DC charging, head-up two screen display, four doors, fold-down rear seats, 3500-Watt vehicle-to-load (V2L) 115 VAC connection (which means it could power an entire house), all for a price around $38,000. Pretty remarkable.

Looking ahead, V2L is probably going to be more common, not the least reason is that SB 59 in California requires it. The V2L on the Lightning apparently can handle up to 7200 watts and it looks like a 220VAC connection. Ford has had some growing pains with this setup, but it is an area likely to evolve rapidly.

The final point of discussion for the evening was experience with charging in rural areas–good and bad. CleanStart is trying to explore this as a market opportunity for entrepreneurs. We got many good ideas of where to start and several people who were interested.

Probably this was our most fun MeetUp in a while.

As a reminder, we’ll be hosting a large event on the 22nd, in our “Rising Stars Showcase”!
Don’t forget to RSVP!