Green Infrastructure Digest

Earlier this year the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) released the publication “ The Value of Green Infrastructure: A Guide to Recognizing Its Economic, Environmental and Social Benefits”. The publication is a great summary of the benefits of Green Infrastructure and goes a step further by providing data to help communities quantify many of its benefits.

The document includes two example demonstration projects. The first is for a green roof project on a single site and the other seeks to illustrate the benefits of the green roof site if expanded to a neighborhood scale. The authors point out that full life-cycle analysis was not a part of the scope of the analysis included in these demonstrations.

In addition, they offer a series of considerations and limitations of the data included. These points are helpful to consider when applying the information within the report. These include considering the full life-cycle analysis, local performance and level of benefits realized, spatial scaling and thresholds, temporal considerations and scale discounting, operation and maintenance, price variability, and double counting.

The concept of “discounting” described in the report was interesting. It recognizes that society typically values present benefits over future benefits. The following is an excerpt describing this concept:

“The term “discounting” refers to the adjustment one makes to account for future uncertainty (or the opportunity cost of money: a dollar today is not worth the same as a dollar five years down the road). Our society generally values what an investment gives us in the present more than what we might get for it in the future. The reason for this is future uncertainty, and as such, the future value or benefit of an investment must be adjusted or discounted. It is a technique widely used in benefit-cost analyses to understand and compare a project’s implications (its rate of return) over a given temporal scale.”

Overall the report is a helpful resource in quantifying the benefits of green infrastructure. The additional external links and resources provide additional tools and are worth exploring. You can find the full report on CNT’s website.

-Brian Phelps