Photo Credit: Stormwater Magazine, May 2014 and The Icehouse

The May 2014 Issue of Stormwater Magazine contains an excellent article on page 44 entitled “Exploring New Partners to Green Our Urban Landscapes.”  The article describes how incorporating green infrastructure (GI) into site development can yield a return on investment.  Some of the examples cited in the article include:

• The visual amenity afforded by a green roof incorporated into an apartment complex in Boylston MA resulted in an increase in rent of between $300 and $500 a month for those units that overlooked the green roof.
• the DECREASE in the amount of frost heave in porous pavements in Chicago, IL when compared with conventional paved surfaces has resulted in a longer lifespan for the installations making porous pavement the lower cost alternative.
• green roofs double the lifespan of conventional roofs thus incurring savings in roof replacement dollars over a 40 year lifespan.

These examples don’t even consider the possible benefits available through various subsidies for such technology nor consider the relative offset in costs where regulations or ordinances would require stormwater management, whether through GI or conventional measures anyway.  More detailed information is contained NRDC’s 2013 report “The Green Edge: How Commercial Property Investment in Green Infrastructure Creates Value” discussed in our January 31, 2014 blog post.