Last month, several members of our team attended the Annual Meeting of the Green Infrastructure Leadership Exchange (GILE) in Seattle, WA. The Exchange is a social impact network working in the US and Canada to effect a theory of change for equitable green infrastructure implementation. Over the course of three days, green infrastructure (GI) professionals from around North America convened and brought their best thinking, stickiest problems and verve for collaboration to Seattle.
Our CEO, April Mendez, opened the conference with remarks on how important it is to have a network of implementers be able to share space and lessons learned. She also participated in a panel discussion in which she shared Greenprint’s unique approach to CBP3s (Community-Based Public-Private Partnerships).
She shared the example of the work we do in Milwaukee, WI, through the Fresh Coast Green Communities (FCGC) program. Through FCGC, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) is now investing $31.5M — increased from the initial $20M due to the program’s early success — to install and maintain cost-effective GI throughout its GI service area to make strides toward their 2035 Vision. The goal is to implement GI which uses nature-based solutions like trees, plants and soils to create capacity for 10+ Olympic-sized pools of water to be captured during storms. This will reduce stress on Milwaukee’s sewer system, helping to reduce the risk of basement and sewer back-ups and localized flooding, protect freshwater resources, and add beautiful new green spaces.
In another panel, Rose Jordan, VP and PNW Lead for Greenprint, shared the latest on the Green Infrastructure Framework of Practice. Scaling up GI as a practice requires a thoughtful and well-structured approach. Greenprint is supporting the Exchange in the development of an organizing framework for GSI principles, best practices and case examples. It’s a starting point for what happens next: developing the strategies that will support innovation and continuous learning. The Framework is grounded in real-world insights and experiences, and the hard-won lessons learned from practitioners across the US and Canada.
Our key takeaways from the conference:
- The green infrastructure sector is more important now than ever. With the compounding threats of climate change that many of our cities face, GI can offer co-benefits that make our communities more resilient, safer and healthier.
- Equitable implementation of green infrastructure is of utmost importance. From the very beginning of a program or project, community must be at the center of our work. When thoughtfully designed, GI can simultaneously reduce communities’ exposure to harm and increase their opportunities to thrive.
- We’re in good company — there are passionate people working across North America dedicated bringing green infrastructure to their communities. At all levels of government, there are individuals working tirelessly to make sure that GI is successfully implemented and benefiting people and the environment.
There is tremendous wisdom in the GI community and having the opportunity to come together allows practitioners to learn from one another and build on the momentum of each other’s successes. We look forward to collaborating with GILE’s growing membership on continuing to evolve our industry.
