Green infrastructure generates significant ROIs, project finds
Ontario municipalities are missing out on big benefits by not incorporating more green infrastructure projects, says a newly published report.
Written by the Ontario Parks Association (OPA) and Green Infrastructure Foundation (GIF), Green Infrastructure for Climate Adaptation Visualization, Economic Analysis, and Recommendations for Six Ontario Communities suggests that climate-resilient infrastructure projects can provide six-to-one returns on investment over their lifecycles, and bring about a host of benefits, such as reduced energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, improved air quality and reduced urban heat.
The report suggests, however, that while federal and provincial governments largely support the use of green infrastructure, adoption of such facilities lags across Canada. Indeed, it says, many communities struggle to not only implement, but also understand the process of utilizing green infrastructure to adapt to climate change.
“Our experiences in the green infrastructure sector have shown that municipalities across Canada face many of the same issues: aging water infrastructure, vulnerability to surface flooding, increasing severity of weather events, increasing urban heat islands, and a lack of capacity to use green infrastructure to address these challenges,” says the report. “Capacity building is a proven strategy to help municipal stakeholders to address issues in areas they may not have the necessary expertise or resources to do so.”
The report recommends a series of strategies to help build capacity for green infrastructure projects—including green roofs and walls, permeable surfaces, and wetlands. These include developing new training courses, holding green infrastructure charettes in selected municipalities, and building aggregated cost-benefit analyses of such projects.
Six Ontario municipalities—Barrie, Brampton, Guelph, London, Toronto and Waterloo participated in the charrettes. In each, participants from local governments were asked to redesign development projects or development sites in their respective communities using a menu of green-infrastructure types. The groups then looked economic analyses of the potential project investments to determine returns.
Participants in Barrie, for example, considered a redesign of the Dunlop Community Hub. They found that an initial investment of $1.38 million—that included tree-lined streets and paths, an outdoor education space, and a reconfigured street network with green infrastructure elements—could pay back within four years. The investment could also generate a value of more than $10.5 million over 50 years, and create nearly 60 job years in construction and maintenance.
In Toronto, the Agincourt Mall which is poised to be the site of one of the largest new mixed- use developments in the GTA, was identified as a site with significant greening potential. Participants proposed including several features to manage water control on the site and increase tree volume. An initial investment of $3.4 million was found to pay itself back in less than eight years, and create nearly 140 job years and $16 million in value over 50 years.
"Being able to provide municipalities with real-time training and a comprehensive understanding of the value of existing and planned green infrastructure projects has been very rewarding,” said OPA executive director Paul Ronan. “The enthusiasm and interest in seeing the value of our tools will assist all participants to more accurately evaluate key components of existing and proposed developments.”
Charrette participants found the exercise equally fulfilling.
“The design charrette was particularly useful in providing a real-life case study to work through —bringing together professionals from a variety of backgrounds with the developer and consultant team—to identify green solutions for a particular site,” said Kristina Hausmanis, project manager, Green Streets at the City of Toronto.
The program was completed as part of a Climate Adaptation Partners Grant Project funded by the Government of Canada through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.