ANNAPOLIS, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital, Inc. ("Hannon Armstrong") (NYSE: HASI), a leading investor in climate change solutions, today announced a $100,000 donation to support leading organizations addressing racial injustice and voting rights.
The donation will be allocated among the following organizations:
- NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund (LDF) – A nonprofit organization seeking structural changes to expand democracy, eliminate disparities, and achieve racial justice through litigation, advocacy, and public education. Since its founding in 1940, LDF has been a pioneer in the struggle to secure and protect the voting rights, employing legal, legislative, public education, and advocacy strategies to promote the full, equal, and active participation of African-Americans in America's democracy.
- Campaign Zero – A nonprofit organization that aims to reduce police violence in the United States. Campaign Zero promotes urgent policy solutions that can change the way police serve our communities and protect and preserve life through analysis of policing practices across the country, research to identify effective solutions to end police violence, technical assistance to organizers leading police accountability campaigns, and the development of model legislation and advocacy to end police violence nationwide.
- Baltimore Action Legal Team (BALT) – A nonprofit organization providing legal support to Baltimore communities as they exercise their civil liberties, protesting injustices rooted in structural racism and economic inequality. BALT is dedicated to using creative and collective solutions to support the Movement for Black Lives in Baltimore by supporting community-led efforts to address racial injustices focused on inequities in the criminal justice system. These efforts include community education, rapid response, training, research, and advocacy.
“57 years after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the long and painful fight against systemic racism has rightfully taken on renewed urgency over the past months, weeks and days," said Hannon Armstrong Chairman and CEO Jeffrey W. Eckel. “We are committed to helping drive meaningful change for communities of color, which is why we are proud to support the work of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Campaign Zero, and the Baltimore Action Legal Team in elevating Black voices and driving progress towards racial equity and justice.”
As previously announced, Hannon Armstrong has also committed to match individual employee donations made to organizations confronting racial and economic injustices, voter suppression, and other civil rights violations on a dollar for dollar basis up to $2,000.
To support a sustained transformation over the long-term, Hannon Armstrong is taking a number of steps to make both immediate and measurable long-term progress on its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) journey. These previously disclosed actions include convening listening sessions to provide a platform for sharing experiences; holding learning gatherings to understand how and where employees can be valuable allies and advocates; launching a DEIJ task force; implementing efforts to advance diversity in our hiring practices; building on our unconscious bias learning initiatives; and engaging an independent consultant to perform a comprehensive Equity Assessment that will inform a multi-year plan to grow our equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts.
Hannon Armstrong also recognizes the role that a strong democracy plays in the fight for social justice and the need to ensure voting access for all communities, particularly for the Black community and other communities of color. That's why the company is a signatory of Time to Vote, a nonpartisan coalition of U.S. businesses working to increase voter participation in our country's elections. Additionally, Hannon Armstrong joined 249 companies in signing Business for America's letter to Congress in support of secure absentee ballots and safe in-person voting sites for the 2020 election.
To learn more about Hannon Armstrong's stance on powering equity and confronting racial injustice, read the "Clean Energy Industry Leaders Take a Stand Against Racism" joint-statement and the June 2, 2020 letter to employees from Hannon Armstrong Chairman and CEO Jeffrey W. Eckel.
About Hannon Armstrong
Hannon Armstrong (NYSE: HASI) is the first U.S. public company solely dedicated to investments in climate change solutions, providing capital to leading companies in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other sustainable infrastructure markets. With more than $6 billion in managed assets as of June 30, 2020, Hannon Armstrong's core purpose is to make climate-positive investments with superior risk-adjusted returns. For more information, please visit http://www.hannonarmstrong.com. Follow Hannon Armstrong on LinkedIn and Twitter @HannonArmstrong.
