Southwest Environmental Finance Center

About us

We have been assisting Vermont with asset management for the past 5 years through a performance-based training approach in which the attendees are taught about the core concepts of asset management during a series of training events.

The Southwest Environmental Finance Center (SW EFC), formerly called the New Mexico Environmental Finance Center, has been in business within a university setting since 1992.  We are a public service entity within the University of New Mexico School of Engineering’s Center for Water and the Environment.  We are dedicated to assisting state, local, and tribal governments as well as the private sector with the technical, managerial, and financial aspects of environmental service delivery and environmental compliance.  Since its inception the SW EFC has worked with water and wastewater entities all across the country in a variety of capacities including training and direct technical assistance.  We are able to comprehensively address water and wastewater needs, but we have particular strengths in the following areas: asset management, water loss auditing and control, environmental compliance, tribal drinking water,  water system partnerships, water and wastewater funding, green infrastructure, GIS mapping, and energy efficiency. 

We aim to build the internal capacity of the entities we assist so that the knowledge, skills, and ability to meet environmental challenges (such as water loss control, regulatory compliance, or replacing decaying infrastructure)  accrue to individuals within the utility rather than residing solely with an outside entity.  We strive to work with the entities we serve rather than for the entities we serve.  We want our partners to be an integral part of projects so they can improve their internal capabilities for long-term sustainability and resilience.   

Our broad experience and the fact that we work at all levels, federal, regional, state, and local gives us a thorough understanding of the issues water and wastewater utilities currently face, and the gaps in available programs and resources.   We address these gaps by placing a strong emphasis on technical information transfer at all levels.  This transfer occurs through the many trainings we conduct both in person and remotely via webinars or virtual meetings; presentations we give at regional, national, and international conferences;  work groups we participate in; and the many free resources, such as reports, guidebooks, and tools that we develop and disseminate widely.