“Recognise green infrastructure as we do grey infrastructure, so it is properly considered as an asset,” said Shahana McKenzie, Australian Institute of Landscape Architects
Photo Credit: LNA Master Landscapers Association (Australia)
Five Urgent Green Infrastructure Policies
“One of the key issues is to recognise green infrastructure as we do grey infrastructure, so it is properly considered as an asset,” Shahana McKenzie, CEO, Australian Institute of Landscape Architects and convener of the Living Cities Alliance, said at at the recent 202020 Vision roundtable held in Sydney.
The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) champions quality design for public open spaces, stronger communities and greater environmental stewardship.
The Living Cities Alliance seeks to affect positive change, nationally, in Australia’s cities and regions as they pursue a quest to become more sustainable, resilient, productive and equitable. The Alliance seeks to promote green infrastructure investment as a core strategy to achieve these outcomes.
202020 Vision
The 202020 Vision is a new campaign to unite industry, commercial developers and local government to see 20% more green spaces in urban areas by 2020. A purpose is to demonstrate the benefits of green spaces to health, business productivity, keeping cities cool and reducing pollution.
Shahana McKenzie says the green infrastructure asset recognition issue is aimed at having green infrastructure formally recognised by Treasury as an asset class, to be valued during business case development for major federally funded projects, and to hasten the removal of barriers to green infrastructure investment and accelerate the implementation of new projects and policies.
“This would enable local councils, state governments and federal governments to be able to look at and manage those assets as they would other capital assets, which would have a great impact in terms of how they can be maintained and operated.”
To Learn More:
Download a copy of Five urgent green infrastructure policies, an article published in The Australian Financial Review Magazine on June 27, 2016.
Download a copy of the Living Cities Workshop Report, 2016.
