Asheville City Councilors Robin Cape and Brownie Newman set the wheels in motion for the City of Asheville to request legislation that would permit municipalities to float bonds based on the amount of green retrofits people wanted to install on their homes. They stressed that participation would be voluntary, voluntary, VOLUNTARY. Furthermore, like most radical proposals these days, it was only a request for permission; the city didn’t have to actually take advantage of the tools once availed.

The program has been implemented a few places like Berkeley. Cape and Newman described it as win-win because retrofits will increase tax valuations enough to offset interest on the bond loans, but not so much that property tax increases exceed the owners’ savings on fuel costs.