Banking on Green: A Look at How Green Infrastructre Can Save Municipalities Money and Provide Economic Benefits Community-wide
- Abstract
The impacts of stormwater pollution and the need to provide stormwater prevention, management, and treatment all create costs for communities and their residents. These costs can often be offset or reduced by making different choices about how we build communities and infrastructure. By incorporating “green infrastructure” practices in efforts to control stormwater runoff, communities and property developers can reduce energy costs, diminish the impacts of flooding, improve public health, and reduce overall infrastructure costs. In addition, these practices, which rely on natural processes like evaporation, infiltration, and plant transpiration, can effectively and affordably complement traditional “grey” infrastructure, giving stormwater managers the ability to create integrated solutions to better serve their communities. Shifting to this new paradigm also creates more sustainable communities that are better able to meet future challenges, especially in the face of a changing climate.
- Resource Type
- Report
- Authors
- Jeffrey Odefey Stacey Detwiler Katie Rousseau Amy Trice Roxanne Blackwell Kevin O'Hara Mark Buckley Tom Souhlas Seth Brown Pallavi Raviprakesh
- Date
- April 2012
- Institution
- American Rivers, the Water Environment Federation, the American Society of Landscape Architects, and ECONorthwest
- Organization Type
- Ngo
- Climate and Environmental Impact
- Water
- Solution
- Urban greening