Green Infrastructure - Basic Information

Green Infrastructure is associated with a variety of environmental, economic, and human health benefits, many of which go hand-in-hand with one another. The benefits of green infrastructure are particularly accentuated in urban and suburban areas where green space is limited and environmental damage is more extensive. Green infrastructure benefits include:

Better Site Design/Conservation Design - An approach to residential and commercial development that, when properly conducted, can simultaneously reduce pollutant loads, conserve natural areas, save money, and increase property values. In principal, Better Site Design promotes three main goals for new development sites: (1) to reduce the amount of impervious cover, (2) to increase the amount of natural lands set aside for conservation, and (3) to better integrate stormwater treatment systems on-site. Planners can begin to meet these goals by using Green Infrastructure techniques like green roofs, rain gardens, and vegetated swales to manage stormwater runoff and increase the amount of local green space. Reducing the overall scale of streets, driveways, setbacks, parking spaces, and lot sizes are also effective methods of reducing impervious cover and are in keeping with Better Site Design standards.

Green Infrastructure - An adaptable term used to describe an array of products, technologies, and practices that use natural systems – or engineered systems that mimic natural processes – to enhance overall environmental quality and provide utility services. As a general principal, Green Infrastructure techniques use soils and vegetation to infiltrate, evapotranspirate, and/or recycle stormwater runoff. When used as components of a stormwater management system, Green Infrastructure practices such as green roofs, porous pavement, rain gardens, and vegetated swales can produce a variety of environmental benefits. In addition to effectively retaining and infiltrating rainfall, these technologies can simultaneously help filter air pollutants, reduce energy demands, mitigate urban heat islands, and sequester carbon while also providing communities with aesthetic and natural resource benefits.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) - A Rating System that is administered by the US Green Building Council (USGBC) and is currently the most accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings and neighborhood developments in the U.S. The LEED Rating System provides the building industry and the public with quantitative, credible standards for what qualifies as a “green building”. By design, the LEED system promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health including sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.

Low Impact Development (LID) - A comprehensive stormwater management and site-design technique. Within the LID framework, the goal of any construction project is to design a hydrologically functional site that mimics predevelopment conditions. This is achieved by using design techniques that infiltrate, filter, evaporate, and store runoff close to its source. Rather than rely on costly large-scale conveyance and treatment systems, LID addresses stormwater through a variety of small, cost-effective landscape features located on-site. LID is a versatile approach that can be applied to new development, urban retrofits, and revitalization projects. This design approach incorporates strategic planning with micro-management techniques to achieve environmental protection goals while still allowing for development or infrastructure rehabilitation to occur.

To be eligible for LEED certification, a building project must meet certain prerequisites and performance benchmarks ("credits") within each of the five categories. Projects are awarded Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum certification depending on the number of credits they achieve. In 2007, the US Green Building Council launched a LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) pilot Rating System that integrates smart growth, urbanism and green building. Prior to LEED-ND, the LEED-NC (LEED for New Construction) rating focused on elements within the building envelope. The new LEED-ND rating reaches beyond the building envelope to include site design, infrastructure linkages, and improved credits for on-site stormwater management practices such as green roofs, rain gardens, and vegetated swales. Green Infrastructure can play a role within the LEED framework by helping development projects meet a variety of designated performance standards.

Smart Growth - A range of development and conservation strategies intended to protect our natural environment while simultaneously making our communities more attractive, economically stronger, and more socially diverse. Smart Growth encourages development that serves the economy, the community, and the environment. In direct response to the effects of urban sprawl, towns and cities across the country are using creative strategies to develop in ways that preserve natural lands and critical environmental areas, protect water and air quality, and reuse already-developed land. Smart Growth communities conserve resources by reinvesting in existing infrastructure, reclaiming historic buildings, and by designing neighborhoods that have shops, offices, schools, churches, parks, and other amenities within walking or biking-distance of residential areas. Through Smart Growth approaches that enhance neighborhoods and involve local residents in development decisions, these communities are creating vibrant places to live, work, and play. Green Infrastructure practices can play a role in Smart Growth development by providing communities with a variety of environmental and aesthetic benefits that are in line with Smart Growth principals.

Sustainable Infrastructure - A set of policies, approaches and planned expenditures that provide for consistently effective water infrastructure systems over the long term. 'Water infrastructure' generally refers to the pumps, plants, pipes and other physical assets that make up our systems, including those for drinking water, wastewater and stormwater. It may also include more innovative 'soft path' approaches or 'green infrastructure' techniques, and is not limited to traditional systems of conveyance and collection. This infrastructure is truly 'sustainable' when there is a long term plan for replacing the components of the system as they age and wear out - as well as having adequate, dependable revenue streams to support capital needs, operation and maintenance.