Green Infrastructure Collaborative—The Commitment
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In early October 2014, the Green Infrastructure Collaborative was announced “as a network to help communities more easily implement green infrastructure.” The members of the Collaborative include seven federal agencies, as well as 20 nongovernmental organizations and private sector groups, all of which have a stake in improving infrastructure to protect the environment, aid community development, and support economic growth.
Overall, the Collaborative is seeking to bring together all of the many resources and players so that they pledge to work together, share information, and coordinate the use of green infrastructure on a national scale wherever its use is appropriate. According to its Statement of Support, the Collaborative’s purpose is to operate “as a networked-based learning alliance, the Collaborative will advance efforts to build capacity for green infrastructure implementation by providing a platform for national stakeholders to:
1. Leverage joint efforts to promote the multiple community benefits of using green infrastructure,
2. Share and build knowledge around emerging green infrastructure technologies and policy issues, and
3. Facilitate shared inquiry into the best ways to encourage adoption of green infrastructure technologies.”
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In addition to this collective commitment, each signatory to the Statement of Support also committed to undertake individual activities to support the implementation of green infrastructure. Here is a look at how three very different members have committed to supporting green infrastructure using their particular strengths, resources, and experience.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) committed to continuing its support of incorporating green infrastructure “throughout project design” and to:
- Communicate with its 145,000 civil engineering members and its Board of Directors on the progress and importance of the Collaborative through executive updates, as well as via its website, blogs, social media, and weekly newsletter,
- Promote sustainable green infrastructure practices by conducting research and providing information on stormwater management best practices and low impact development (LID), Focus the attention of environmental and water resources engineers and others involved on ways sustainable development principles “can and must lead to broader collaboration with other engineering and professional disciplines,” and
- Produce conferences and publications (like the Low Impact Development Conference) that highlight “new and continuing work including research developments and community adoption of LID throughout the United States and internationally.”
From another perspective, the national environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) also committed to the Collaborative by promising to:
- Advocate and litigate for full enforcement by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Clean Water Act (CWA) requirements for managing stormwater and promoting retention practices “that drive green infrastructure,” and
- “Develop tools to help municipalities and private developers quantify the benefits from green infrastructure implementation and to finance green infrastructure initiatives.”
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The University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center, which “actively studies all forms of stormwater management” and “has a very active outreach program meant to enhance the implementation of green infrastructure,” committed to continuing its many stormwater activities already in progress, and to:
- Assist community projects by applying for green infrastructure implementation funding.
- Employ green infrastructure for Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) educational initiatives.
- On the watershed scale, demonstrate the benefits to ecosystems, the economic and resiliency benefits, and social capital benefits of green infrastructure.
- Demonstrate that use of green infrastructure can result in impaired waterways being delisted.
- Examine and explore the technical and human dimension barriers to adoption of green infrastructure rooted strategies to manage water resources.
- Identify key decision-making roles of individuals and delineate how the roles are involved in decision making.
- Assist communities, nongovernmental organizations, watershed and environmental groups, developers, and other stakeholders in applying for and securing funding for green infrastructure projects.
Each federal agency involved also made commitments that are defined in the Federal Letter of Support, available at http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/greeninfrastructure/upload/Federal-Support-for-Green-Infrastructure-Collaborative_508.pdf.