Investing wisely in “green” infrastructure can also provide ready-to-go solutions that keep pace with today’s need for jobs and public works enhancements, simultaneously bolstering the economy, the environment, and even the social fabric of America, in rural and urban regions alike.

Green infrastructure is the interconnected network of open spaces and natural areas that provides wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities. Protecting the existing network of green space, including forests, woodlands, prairies, savannas, and stream corridors, can reduce global warming, support biodiversity, and clean and absorb stormwater.

Green infrastructure is also a set of techniques and practices that help reduce the amount of stormwater that runs off a site. Green infrastructure includes such things as native landscaping, green roofs, tree plantings, rain gardens and permeable pavements.  Green infrastructure replicates natural processes, conserves water, protects water quality, and reduces flooding.

As the nation looks at ways to replace its crumbling infrastructure, create new jobs, and jumpstart the economy, it needs to invest in a mix of both green and gray infrastructure.

Incorporating green infrastructure into new development and retrofitting existing communities using green techniques reduces the need for building more costly traditional infrastructure and makes our communities more livable and beautiful. Protecting forests and prairies reduces global warming through carbon sequestration. Green infrastructure also reduces energy consumption and curbs our dependence on foreign oil.

Today, we must invest in green infrastructure and open space as well as in transportation, sewage treatment plants, and communications infrastructure. Particularly in metropolitan regions, we need to be sure that the infrastructure improvements we make are ultimately sustainable for generations to come.

The creation and development of an integrated system of green infrastructure requires investment at many different scales. Like gray infrastructure projects, which range from interstate highway expansion to local school building improvements, green infrastructure projects range from significant upgrades and development projects at our national parks, forests, and refuges to improvements in neighborhood parks. Plans for new trails, recreation facilities, and broadscale restoration are already in place and can be implemented quickly, creating jobs, stimulating economic development, and leaving a lasting legacy.

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