Guide to Stimulate Natural Infrastructure Investment Released

In the wake of Superstorm Sandy and 2012’s unparalleled extreme weather events, a new green infrastructure financing guide was released today by the NatLab consortium—a path-breaking collaboration between two environmental organizations, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and The Nature Conservancy, and sustainable asset management firm EKO Asset Management Partners.

The new report, which was developed in collaboration with the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, focuses on Philadelphia’s innovative Green City, Clean Waters program as a model for stimulating investment in natural infrastructure. It demonstrates how local municipalities and state government can potentially drive billions of dollars of private investment to modernize broken, aging storm water systems and keep storm water pollution out of waterways. Nearly 10 trillion gal of polluted runoff—sometimes mixed with raw sewage—are currently dumped into local rivers, lakes, beaches and drinking water supplies annually.

NatLab’s new report, “Creating Clean Water Cash Flows,” and companion report, “Greening Vacant Lots,” validates the business case for both innovative public policy and private investment in green infrastructure by drawing from lessons from the energy efficiency finance sphere. The report provides in-depth guidance on key strategies that cities can deploy to attract private capital to green infrastructure development on private as well as public land, including: project aggregation, offsite mitigation and credit trading programs, subsidies, private-public partnerships and transformation of vacant lands.

Natural infrastructure—such as porous pavement, green roofs, parks, roadside plantings and rain barrels—addresses storm water pollution by capturing rain on or near where it falls, preventing the rain from carrying runoff from dirty streets to local waterways and oceans, instead storing the rain or allowing it to naturally filter back into the ground. These sustainable practices not only restore the health of local waterways, but also beautify neighborhoods, cool and cleanse the air, reduce asthma and heat-related illnesses, save on heating/cooling energy costs, boost economies and support American jobs—usually at the same or lower cost than a purely “traditional” gray infrastructure solution.

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Source: atural Resources Defense Council (NRDC