Webinar: Valuing Green Infrastructure: Economic, Environmental, and Social Benefits
Presented by Hal Sprague, Manager of Water Policy, Center for Neighborhood Technology
When: Thursday, September 26, 2013
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Where: Your Computer
Register: http://tinyurl.com/ktznv96
Overview: The Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) is a 35-year old organization that develops tools and methods for sustainable economic development. In 2011, CNT and American Rivers developed “The Value of Green Infrastructure: A Guide to Recognizing Its Economic, Social and Environmental Benefits.” The guide is a tool that municipalities can use to quantify the multiple economic, environmental, and social benefits provided by green stormwater infrastructure (GSI). Municipalities have often struggled to quantify GSI’s monetary benefits. However, any cost-benefit analysis comparing gray infrastructure with GSI is incomplete if it fails to factor in the multiple benefits that only GSI uniquely delivers. These benefits are above and beyond the basic stormwater control benefits, which are assumed to be equal to a similar investment in gray infrastructure. “The Value of Green Infrastructure” brings together current research on green infrastructure performance and presents methods for calculating related benefits in water management, energy, air quality, climate, and community livability.
Hal Sprague from CNT will walk us through the development of the guide and how it can be used to promote greater GSI implementation in Vermont cities and towns.
About the Presenter: Hal has been at the Center for Neighborhood Technology, in Chicago, since May 2008, and is Manager of Water Policy at CNT. He researches and promotes policies that increase the use of sustainable water management strategies and practices in urban communities, such as water conservation and stormwater green infrastructure. Hal earned a master’s degree in Water Resources Management from the University of Michigan and his law degree from the University of Colorado. Prior to joining CNT, Hal practiced environmental law for 23 years, including positions at U.S. EPA, a major law firm, and a multinational corporation.