GETTING THE MOST FROM INFRASTRUCTURE ASSETS – ECOLOGICAL ACCOUNTING PROTOCOL (Part 2): “It would allow Asset Managers and Owners to see a more complete picture of value and future costs and determine whether or not drawing services from natural assets for drainage infrastructure makes financial sense,” stated Tim Pringle (Asset Management BC Newsletter, Fall 2016)
“The Ecological Accounting Protocol (EAP) is an economic tool to make real the notion of ‘watersheds as infrastructure assets’. EAP would support four related analytical approaches to capital expenditure and life cycle costs represented in infrastructure (drainage) services drawn from natural assets. These are Substitution, Cost Avoidance, Environmental (watershed health) Benefits, and Attributed Values,” wrote Tim Pringle. “EAP would make sustainable service delivery more robust with the inclusion of the value and costs
associated with the use of services from natural assets to supply infrastructure.”
GETTING THE MOST FROM INFRASTRUCTURE ASSETS – THE IDEA OF ECOLOGICAL ACCOUNTING (Part 1): “Ecological accounting differs from ecological economics. Ecological accounting faces the challenge of monetizing natural assets and services in a way that can be compared to engineered assets and services,” stated Tim Pringle (Asset Management BC Newsletter, Winter 2016)
Tim Pringle coined the phrase ecological accounting protocol to enable comparison of engineered infrastructure to natural systems by means of common units of measurement and value. “The challenge is in HOW to calculate the most effective blend of services from nature and engineered infrastructure. The need for measurement and valuation is paramount. While engineered services involve expenditures that are readily accounted, those drawn from nature do not have commonly accepted measures and values,” he wrote.
THE MOST EFFICIENT INFRASTRUCTURE IS ‘DESIGN WITH NATURE’ – START WITH WATER SUSTAINBILITY: “Human settlement should be in relative balance with the ecology that supports it,” wrote Tim Pringle (President’s Perspective, February 2011)
In 2011, Tim Pringle foreshadowed the Ecological Accounting Process. “Designing with nature is efficient. It amounts to using income from natural capital rather than drawing down the resource. The key principle is that settlement and ecology are equal values. This condition supports better control of the life-cycle costs of providing infrastructure for the built environment. By designing with nature, as it were, communities lessen and sometimes avoid the expense of engineering and building various kinds of infrastructure,” he wrote.