Green Infrastructure

Patrick Lucey (120p)
The centuries-old approach of piping water off the land as fast as possible and dumping it into waterways is failing fast. Shifting to sustainability by design is a fundamentally new approach.

“The Province of British Columbia and B.C. local governments are committed to working together toward a vision of green, sustainable communities. Green communities are vibrant, connected, innovative, environmentally sustainable, economically viable and socially responsive. The B.C. approach to achieving this vision involves all partners working together to help remove barriers, provide incentives, build capacity and ensure the right mix of regulation and legislation,” stated BC Minister Stephanie Cadieux.

Paul Crabtree (120p) – Rainwater in Context Initiative
The one-size-fits all sites approach often ignores the watershed scale, and can have unintended negative consequences in regards to infill, redevelopment, and compact urbanism in general.

“In British Columbia, we are seeing opportunities to bring together two streams of thinking: watershed-based planning and infrastructure asset management. This is a remarkable shift. A catalyst for holistic outcomes is this financial challenge: the initial capital cost of infrastructure is about 20% of the life-cycle cost,” states Kim Stephens.

Katherine Baer (120p)
American Rivers
More communities are beginning to understand that economic vitality and resilience to climate change rest on adaptation strategies that provide multiple benefits for every public dollar invested.

Kim Stephens (120p) – 2010
In both Canada and the United States, light bulbs are going on about the inter-connectedness of green infrastructure and water sustainability, and the implications for watershed health.

“The most obvious change for stormwater professionals in LEED 2012 is that the credits for Stormwater Management in previous versions – separate credits for stormwater quality and quantity – have been combined into a single Rainwater Management credit within the Sustainable Sites category,” writes Janice Kaspersen.

Mayor Dianne Watts – City of Surrey
A municipally-owned utility that will be responsible for the DE systems in Surrey. The first system will be built in City Centre under the new City Hall using ground source heat exchange as the primary energy supply.

“Establishing a framework for calculating the benefits of green infrastructure is a first, key step to making it a mainstream practice,” said Danielle Gallet.

“Vancouver has continued to add to its urban forest by planting another 3,000 street trees this winter. The total number of street trees in Vancouver’s 22 districts now stands at 138,000, compared to only 80,000 back in 1990,” wrote Steve Whysall.