CREWS – WHAT’S IN A NAME: “What does the future of green stormwater infrastructure look like?” – question posed by Katharine McLaughlin in a publication that explains why the Kresge Foundation invests in GSI through its Climate Resilient and Equitable Water Systems initiative
Note to Reader:
Founded in 2024, the Kresge Foundation invests in GSI through its Climate Resilient and Equitable Water Systems initiative, known as CREWS. The mission us too transform urban stormwater and wastewater systems to provide reliable, equitable and innovative services to all community residents.
In August 2026, the Kresge Foundation released an info-bulletin by Katharine McLaughlin titled Q&A: How green stormwater infrastructure works and why it matters. A set of nine questions and answers offer a closer look at how green stormwater infrastructure works, why it matters, and how cities, funders and residents can shape a healthier and more equitable future together.
In featuring the Kresge Foundation’s CREW initiative, we use it as a springboard to connect the dots to stories about the precedent-setting work of Dr. Zbigniew Grabowski that the Partnership for Water Sustainability published in 2022 and 2025.
How green stormwater infrastructure works and why it matters
“When heavy rain falls in many cities, it does more than soak the streets. It challenges the strength of aging pipes, the health of nearby rivers and the resilience of neighborhoods. It has become a recurring crisis. Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) offers a different path forward,” wrote Katharine McLauglin, a senior communications officer at The Kresge Foundation.
“By helping people work with nature rather than against it, GSI manages water where it falls, easing the burden on overstretched gray systems such as traditional pipes and storm drains and reduces flood risk, while delivering benefits that extend far beyond a single storm.”
Members of the CREWS initiative visit a bioretention pond at Oakland City West End Apartments, a 111-unit affordable housing community in southwest Atlanta. A bioswale, or bioretention pond, is a landscaped, shallow channel with gently sloped sides designed to capture, slow down, and filter stormwater runoff from hard surfaces. (PHOTO: The Kresge Foundation)
Co-governance models define local success
“Rain gardens and retention pond parks cool hot blocks and create greenspace for people. Bioswales filter out water pollution. Restored wetlands shield coastlines from storms and create wildlife habitat. Permeable pavements and green roofs slow rushing water and lower energy bills. This is why Kresge invests in GSI through CREWS.”
“CREWS partners prioritize community-led planning and implementation so residents shape where projects go, who builds them and how the multiple benefits are shared. However, equitable outcomes require more than thoughtful design. They require a change in who holds power over water decisions. “
“CREWS partners are advancing co-governance models that position residents, community-based organizations and public agencies as shared decision-makers. Co-governance means residents help set priorities, shape budgets, choose project sites and define what success looks like in their own neighborhoods.”
To Learn More:
To read the complete bulletin, download a PDF copy of Q&A: How green stormwater infrastructure works and why it matters.
REIMAGINE URBAN GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AS AN ECOSYSTEM
In 2022, Dr. Zbigniew Grabowski burst onto the local government scene in the United States with “What is green infrastructure? A study of definitions in US city planning”, a seminal study that provides perspective for judging the British Columbia green infrastructure journey in context.
“Green infrastructure is broadly understood to be a good thing, but many city plans lack a clear definition of what it actually is. Hydrological definitions dominate. This narrow view can cause cities to miss out on vital social and ecological services that more integrative green infrastructure can provide,” stated Dr. Zbigniew Grabowski,lead author of a nationwide analysis of GI plans from 20 American cities.
Dr. Zbigniew Grabowski is a systems thinker and thought leader who advocates for a socio-ecological approach to urban green infrastructure that intertwines Indigenous knowledge. To follow his passion, he has made the leap from professor and researcher to executive director of a stewardship sector alliance that champions co-governance of a watershed.
To Learn More:
To read an interview published on February 15th 2022 on this waterbucket.ca website, download a PDF copy of Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Design With Nature Framework for Integrating Across Infrastructure Systems.
Download a copy of the research paper, What is green infrastructure? A study of definitions in US city planning, as published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment,
Also, click on Toward a more inclusive definition of green infrastructure to download a PDF copy of the news release above.
STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Reimagine urban green infrastructure as an ecosystem
— an extract from “Synthesis Report on EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, a BC Strategy for Community Investment in Stream Systems “(released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability, June 2022)
EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, is an expression of Blue Ecology. Both are about a restorative framework and mindset. This means restoring the interconnectivity and function of natural systems in a way that truly represents their importance.
Tim Pringle developed the EAP methodology and metrics to make real this guiding philosophy which he framed in the 1990s: use and conversation of land are equal values. It has been a decade long journey for Tim to test, refine and mainstream application of EAP in the local government setting.
In the Synthesis Report on EAP, the essence of Tim’s conversation with Zbigniew Grabowski in January 2022 is distilled into a 2-page summary which is reproduced below. Two ideas explored in their conversation are highlighted: Design With Nature; and Socio-Ecological Systems Context.
Green Infrastructure Continuum idea defines the British Columbia journey
The Partnership for Water Sustainability uses the term ‘green infrastructure continuum’ to frame how green infrastructure understanding and the state-of-the-art around it are building on experience and evolving over time.
The continuum idea provides context for milestones on the green infrastructure journey in B.C. EAP is one point along the continuum.
EAP is the latest evolution in a process that began in the 1990s.
“The Riparian Deficit is a measure of land use intrusion along streams. A comparatively low value is a positive indicator of the effectiveness of streamside setback regulation,” explains Tim Pringle.
“The Riparian Deficit is equivalent to the well-known Infrastructure Deficit that currently drives Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery in British Columbia.”
“Having a number for the Riparian Deficit provides environmental planners with a point of departure for balanced inter-departmental conversations about the services that natural and constructed assets each provides.”
Conversation with Zbigniew Grabowski about moving towards a more inclusive definition of green infrastructure in the United States
Analysis of 122 plans from 20 major cities by Dr. Zbigniew Grabowski of the Cary Institute found that many plans fail to explicitly define green infrastructure. When they do, they tend to focus on stormwater management. A conversation with Dr. Z allowed the Partnership to compare and contrast US and BC experience and connect dots.
IDEA ONE: Design With Nature objectives for community development
The key takeaway from Dr. Z is that the green infrastructure state-of- the-art in the United States is now close to where BC was in 2005 when the Partnership developed a “Design With Nature” framework for a whole-system approach that integrates across infrastructure systems.
In the meantime, the Partnership work has continued to progress along the green infrastructure continuum as we evolve the systems approach. EAP is the latest evolution and may be the gold standard.
More than engineered infrastructure
Synchronicity with British Columbia experience
In 2022, the synthetic definition of green infrastructure put forward by Zbigniew Grabowski and his colleagues echoed the “design with nature” framing put forward by the Partnership in 2005.
Green infrastructure (GI) refers to a system of interconnected ecosystems, ecological-technological hybrids, and built infrastructures providing contextual social, environmental, and technological functions and benefits.
As a planning concept, GI brings attention to how diverse types of urban ecosystems and built infrastructures function in relation to one another to meet socially negotiated goals.
IDEA TWO: Socio-Ecological Systems Context
“So, what led me to look at green infrastructure through the systems lens? It resulted from thinking about how the social processes shaping landscapes are inseparable from people’s relationship with nature, the ecosystem itself, as well as what infrastructure is present on the landscape.”
“It is not just about ecological assets. It is also about these hybrid ‘built assets’ as well as the range of technological innovations.”
Look at Green Infrastructure through a Social Lens
“We had this moment of realization about the diversity of plans when it clicked in our minds about analyzing all the plans in terms of three big buckets: something that is very stormwater-focused, something that is very land-focused, and something that is trying to integrate the two.”
Re-imagining green infrastructure as an integrated system
His revelation describes the essence of EAP and what the Partnership for Sustainability is striving to accomplish by advancing this foundational concept: Drainage infrastructure and the stream system together provide the municipal Drainage Service.
To Learn More:
Waterbucket eNews stories are structured in three parts: One-Minute Takeaway, Editor’s Perspective and Context for Busy Reader, and the Story Behind the Story. To read the complete 3-part storyline, download a PDF copy of Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Reimagine urban green infrastructure as an ecosystem.
DOWNLOAD A COPY: https://waterbucket.ca/wcp/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/05/PWSBC_Living-Water-Smart_Zbigniew-Grabowski-reimagines-green-infrastructure_2025.pdf