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Image credit: Taeoh Kim / ASLA 2009 Honor Award. ChonGae
Canal Source Point Park: Sunken Stone Garden, Seoul, Korea.
Mikyoung Kim Design |
Tools are needed to put sustainable design theory into practice. To complement an earlier series of thematic resource guides organized around climate change, sustainable urban development, transportation, livable communities, and green infrastructure, this three-part "Sustainability Toolkit" will provide online toolkits, assessment tools, checklists, modeling software, and case studies designed to aid policy makers and design professionals roll out sustainable projects at the regional, urban, and local levels.
The Sustainabilty Toolkit covers environmental, economic, and social models. Part one offered a range of environmental models. Part two covers economic models. Part three, which will be coming over the next few months, will explore the social components of sustainability, including community participation and public health models.
Sustainability Toolkit: Economic Models focuses on economic sustainability, which involves the development of a healthy economy that supports and sustains people and the environment over the long-term. In a market-driven economy, cost is a deciding factor in determining whether a project moves forward. To be sustainable, projects must not only provide environmental and social benefits, but also offer economic value. Ecosytem service models can also be used to quantify the inherent economic value of services nature already provides for free.
The toolkit is arranged from macro- to micro-scales, beginning with sustainable regional planning, and moving to sustainable cities & communities planning, sustainable neighborhood planning, and, then finally, site-specific tools related to sustainable landscapes and green buildings.
Sustainability Toolkit: Economic Models is meant to be a living guide and will only improve with your assistance. Please send any recommendations to: info@asla.org
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Sustainability Toolkit:
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Sustainable Design Resource Guides:
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Sustainable Residential Design Resource Guides:
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Project Financing Resources:
Economic Stimulus Opportunities
(American Society of Landscape Architects)
This guide outlines federal stimulus opportunities that benefit landscape architects and other design professionals. Federal opportunities are organized into the following sections: transportation, water, sustainable design, climate change, small business, and government procurement.
Eight Models for Funding Public Green Space
(Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment)
This article summarizes eight strategies for funding the management and maintenance of urban green space and recommends how these funds might be attained in a range of contexts.
Federal Funding Sources for Watershed Protection
(U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
This searchable database helps organizations find a multitude of financial assistance sources (grants, loans, cost-sharing) available to fund watershed protection projects.
Financing Green Infrastructure Projects
(U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
This fact sheet identifies several ways in which states, communities, and individuals can use the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) to finance green infrastructure projects.
Financing Local Parks
(Trust for Public Land)
This handbook offers a set of resources on local park financing techniques, property taxes, special assessment districts, business improvement and benefit assessment districts, and other components that enable parks to be economically sustainable.
Financing Solar Energy Sources
(U.S. Department of Energy)
This guide is for lenders and consumers who need information about nationwide financing programs for solar energy systems.
Funding for Bike Paths & Greenways
(Rails to Trails Conservancy)
This toolbox offers a summary of various programs that can be used to help fund local trails and greenways.
Funding Opportunities for Green Buildings
(U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
Numerous sources of funding for green building are available at the national, state and local levels for homeowners, industry, government organizations and non-profits. The links on this page can help you find a variety of funding sources including grants, tax-credits, and loans.
Funding Sources for Greenway Projects
(Project for Public Spaces)
According to the Project for Public Spaces, the most common method for funding greenways is to combine local, public sector and private sector funds with funds from state, federal and additional private-sector sources.
Renewable Energy Financing Case Studies
(Commission for Environmental Cooperation)
This report includes five in-depth case studies that provide analysis and guidance for renewable energy planning in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
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Economic competitiveness is rooted in sustainable regional planning. By applying sustainable design principles to land-use, energy production, transportation, and infrastructure planning, regions can facilitate economic growth and investment. Sustainable regional planning enables regions to attract new businesses, raise real estate values, promote tourism, maintain biodiversity, and cut stormwater and transportation infrastructure costs. Furthermore, protecting ecosystem services, which provide nutrient cycling and crop pollination, clean drinking water, disease control, and climate regulation, benefits us economically.
Financing regional projects is rarely a straightforward process. Regional planners must piece together funding from multiple sources, including federal, regional, state and local governments, leading foundations, and non-profits in order to create multi-layered roadmaps for sustainable regions.
Toolkits
The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity (TEEB)
This international initiative draws together expertise from the fields of science, economics, and policy to show the cost of sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem services is lower than the cost of allowing the degradation of biodiverse areas that offer high-value ecosystem services.
The Economic Value of Green Infrastructure (Northwest Regional Development Agency, U.K.)
Highlights the economic benefits of green infrastructure in terms of economic growth and investment and offers approaches to economic assessment.
Envalue (New South Wales Government, Australia)
This online database provides access to environmental valuation studies.
Green Accounting: A Virtual Resource Center (United Nations Environment Program)
The center provides a searchable database of manuals, handbooks, case studies and other materials related to integrated environmental and economic accounting or "green accounting."
Guidebook of Financial Tools: Paying for Environmental Systems (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
This 238-page manual serves as a comprehensive directory for evaluating public financing strategies for environmental projects on a range of scales.
Nature Valuation and Financing Network
The network offers a range of tools and case studies on the valuation of ecosystem goods and services.
Using Fair-Share Costing to Control Sprawl (Smart Communities Network)
Analyzes the economic costs of sprawl and how fare-share costing can help solve the problem.
Smart Growth / Smart Energy Toolkit (State of Massachusetts)
The government of Massachusetts put together this toolkit of state policies and initiatives to ensure state infrastructure investments encourage smart growth instead of subsidizing sprawl.
Sprawl Costs: Economic Impacts of Unchecked Development (Robert Burchell, Anthony Downs, Sahan Mukherji , Barbara McCann)
This book offers a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of different approaches to growth, and gives decision-makers and land-use planners realistic and useful data on the implications of various strategies and policies.
Assessment Tools
The EcoValue Project (The Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, University of Vermont)
Based at the University of Vermont, this project "provides an interactive decision support system for assessing and reporting the economic value of ecosystem goods and services in geographic context."
Economic Valuation of Coral Reefs (World Resource Institute)
According to WRI, this project focuses on the development of a valuation methodology that will be broadly applicable in countries across the Caribbean, supporting wise, long-term coastal policy and management.
Millennium Ecosystem Assessments (United Nations)
This is a guide to the various Millennium Ecosystem assessments. From 2001 to 2005, a team of more than 1,360 experts worldwide conducted a state-of-the-art scientific appraisal of the "condition and trends in the world’s ecosystems and the services they provide." These reports provide the underlying foundation for the ecosystem service concept.
Modeling Software
CITYGreen (American Forests)
CITYgreen software is a powerful GIS application for land-use planning and policy-making. It is an extension to ESRI’s ArcGIS products.
Economic Impact Assessment MGM2 (National Park Service)
The Money Generation Model (MGM2) is an excel workbook that estimates the regional economic impacts of National Park visitor spending."The Money Generation Model produces quantifiable measures of park economic benefits that can be used for planning, concessions management, budget justifications, policy analysis and marketing."
InVEST 1.0 Beta (Natural Capital Project)
The Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) is a suite of models and software tools that aims to provide a consistent methodology for measuring and comparing the value of multiple ecosystem services across real landscapes.
Case Studies
Economic Benefits of Recycling Regional and State Case Studies (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
The E.P.A. has collected a set of state and regional case studies outlining the economic benefits of recycling.
Ecosystem Services Valuation Map (Conservation International)
The Center for Applied Biodiversity Science created a set of maps and case studies worldwide on the economic, livelihood, and cultural values of ecosystems.
Ecosystem Services Case Study: The Mississippi River Floods of 1993 and 2008 (Landen Consulting)
This case study shows how flood damages in the Mississippi River Valley can be reduced by converting existing farm land into wetlands using sustainable land-use planning strategies.
Watershed Markets Case Studies (International Institute for Environment and Development)
This site highlights case studies for sites using market mechanisms to increase water services.
Sustainable planning strategies help cities attract and retain high-value industries and talent. Businesses and people are attracted to places that offer multi-modal transportation, convenient park and recreation spaces, stunning streetscapes, and clean energy production. Investing in sustainable city and community planning help raise real estate values and increase tourism, adding to the economic vitality of the city. In addition, investment in parks and green infrastructure allows cities to take advantage of ecosystem services that lower long-run costs by reducing flood risk, stormwater management and treatment costs, and regulating temperature and climate.
Sustainable urban and community development involves using policies, regulations, zoning, and tax-based incentives to guide the growth of multi-modal transportation networks, green infrastructure, open spaces, downtown revitalization and brownfield rehabilitation. For example, congestion pricing enables cities to move away from car-dependent transportation infrastructure. Cities can spur the expansion of urban tree canopies by mandating new property developments include a set number of trees. Lastly, creating grant programs so local non-profits and communities can participate in brownfield clean-up projects is key to increasing access to green space and bringing smart growth development to inner-city communities.
Toolkits
Clean Cities Energy Coordinator Toolbox (U.S. Department of Energy)
The U.S. department of energy assembled this toolbox designed to help city energy planners develop successful, thriving coalitions and organize project funding.
Urban Foresty Toolkit For Local Governments (ICLEI)
This toolkit is designed to communicate the benefits of the urban forest and provide policy guidelines to enable municipalities to move toward achieving a sustainable urban ecosystem. The included fact sheets discuss the environmental, economic, and social benefits of urban forests.
Assessment Tools
Urban Forestry Map (City of San Francisco, CalFire, Friends of the Urban Forest)
This web-based tool calculates the economic value of the range of ecosystem services trees provide, including greenhouse gas mitigation, water and energy conservation, and air quality benefits.
Wind Project Calculator (Windustry)
This excel workbook tool was developed to assist decision makers perform cash flow modeling for community wind turbine projects.
Checklists
Model Recycling Programs (Recycle Together)
This checklist enables recycling program developers to compare their projects to those in cities of similar complexion and size which have exemplary recycling programs.
Case Studies
Congestion Pricing: A Primer (U.S. Department of Transportation / Federal Highways Administration)
This brief primer outlines a few congestion pricing cases in the U.S. and abroad.
Ecosystem Services Project Case Studies (CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems and the Myer Foundation)
The project is a collaborative natural resource management program focused on the "services people obtain from their environments." Case studies focus on Australia.
How Much Value Does the City of Philadelphia Receive from its Park and Recreation System? (Trust for Public Land)
This in-depth study quantified the economic value of the city of Philadelphia’s park and recreation system in terms of reduced air pollution, reduced stormwater management, increased property value, direct use value, improved human health, increased tourism, and community cohesion.
London Congestion Pricing: Implications for Other Cities (Victoria Transport Policy Institute)
Since 2003, London has charged private automobile owners a fee for driving in the central district. This case study outlines how the approach has "significantly reduced traffic congestion, improved bus and taxi service, and generated substantial revenues."
Millennium Park Economic Impact Study (Goodman Williams Group / URS Corporation for the City of Chicago)
This economic impact study examines Millennium Park's economic contribution to the City of Chicago
Model Recycling Program, San Jose, California
San José, California has an exemplary recycling program, with an overall landfill diversion rate of 62 percent. It’s website provides an excellent overview of its strategies which can serve as a model for recycling programs across the nation. It also outlines how recycling provided economic benefits to the city and local businesses
Sustainable neighborhoods are diverse, compact, walkable, and connected, the antithesis of sprawl. Green spaces, complete streets, and mixed-use, mixed-income development, help unify a neighborhood as an economically sustainable unit. These neighborhoods create a virtuous cycle of economic development, attracting new businesses and residents, increasing local real-estate values, and reducing transportation costs.
Sustainable neighborhood planning involves incorporating best practice models, like LEED-Neighborhood Development (ND) into neighborhood zoning and other regulatory frameworks. Local governments can require developers add adequate public green spaces and provide ecosystem services at the neighborhood level. Through local regulations, community facilities like schools can become agents of smart growth, which encourages higher levels of connectivity, instead of acting as enablers of sprawl. Using "form-based code" approaches, well-designed and functional streetscapes can attract people from surrounding areas to shop, eat, and visit cultural attractions.
Neighborhood financing models include federal, state, and local funding mechanisms as well as grants, private partnerships and other creative methods like public fund raisers. Finding the best strategies involves researching available options given local conditions and project parameters.
Toolkits
The Economic Value of Walkability (Victoria Transport Policy Institute)
This paper describes the economic advantages of walkability and how neighborhoods benefit from increased basic mobility, consumer cost savings, reduced external costs, efficient land use, community livability, improved fitness and public health, economic development, and support for equity objectives.
Complete Streets Lower Transportation Costs (National Complete Streets Coalition)
This economic research study shows complete streets projects reduce transportation costs within communities.
Siting of School Facilities (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
The E.P.A. says a growing number of communities are siting schools to encourage smart growth and meet multiple goals (educational, health, environmental, economic, social, and fiscal) in the process.
Assessment Tools
Housing + Transportation Affordability Index (Center for Neighborhood Technology)
This tool allows homeowners to calculate the true cost of housing, meaning the added costs of transportation.
Tree Benefits Calculator (Casey Trees)
With inputs of location, species and tree size, the Tree Benefit Calculator allows anyone to make a simple estimation of the environmental and economic benefits of an individual street-side tree. This easy-to-use assessment tool helps users calculate a tree’s dollar value in terms of its contribution to stormwater management, property value, energy conservation, air quality, and carbon sequestration.
Checklists
Benefits of Community Trees & Forests (University of Georgia)
This analysis of community trees and forests includes a list of quantitative data supporting their economic benefits.
Modeling Software
i-Tree (U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service)
i-Tree is a peer-reviewed software suite that helps users understand the local, tangible ecosystem services that trees provide by accurately calculating their value. i-Tree allows users to link urban forest management activities with environmental quality and community livability, helping them set priorities for more effective decision-making at a broad range of scales.
Urban Forest Effects (UFORE) (U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service)
UFORE (otherwise known as i-Tree ECO) is the free version of i-Tree that provides urban forestry analysis and benefit assessment tools.
Case Studies
The Upside of a Down Economy: Going Local (Urban Land)
This article highlights two park projects, Discovery Green in Houston, Texas, and Campus Martius in Detroit, Michigan, which have spurred economic growth in depressed neighborhoods.
Solara Affordable Housing Community, Poway, California
This solar-powered, green affordable housing community took full advantage of tax credits and incentives to fund the $16.2 million project.
Complete Streets Spark Economic Revitalization, West Palm Beach, Florida
In an effort to revitalize a barren downtown, West Palm Beach invested in sustainable transportation strategies, including pedestrian crossings, traffic calming measures, and streetscaping. As a result, commercial and residential property values along the improved corridors soared.
Sustainable landscape architecture practices reduce long-term economic costs associated with a site. Implementing permeable streets and driveways, bioswales, rain gardens and bioretention ponds and other green infrastructure systems through a Low Impact Development (LID) approach reduces the costs and amount of materials needed. The use of native plant species further reduces costs by lowering the need for artificial irrigation, chemical fertilizers, and frequent maintenance. Strategically-placed trees reduce heating and cooling costs required for buildings by providing shade during summer and wind breaks during winter.
For urban neighborhoods, brownfield redevelopment offers the potential to transform contaminated industrial sites into economically productive landscapes. Turning brownfields into parks, for instance, can help cities and communities turn previously unproductive land into an asset that provides ecosystem services and attracts new businesses.
The long-term economic value of a sustainable site can be calculated through a sustainable return on investment (SROI) approach. This approach is ideal for clients who seek to maximize the triple-bottom line (economic, environmental, and social) value of a site. This accounting model enables local policy makers and developers to monetize a sustainable site's ecosystem services -- the hidden benefits of sustainable sites, such as improved air quality, enhanced accessibility, limited stormwater runoff, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
Toolkits
Value Beyond Cost Savings: How to Underwrite Sustainable Properties (Green Building Financing Consortium)
This book, available for free-download, is designed to assist private investors in making better financially based sustainable property investment decisions.
Landscape Management Issues that Increase Long-term Costs (Saving Water Partnership)
This presentation provides common landscape management practices that promote inefficient water usage and increased landscape maintenance costs.
Assessment Tools
Full Costing Calculator: Residential Stormwater Management (Sustainable Cities Initiative)
Developed by the Water Environment Research Foundation in partnership with the E.P.A., these calculators determine the present and future costs associated with green roofs, rainwater catchment systems, bioretention facilities, retention ponds, extended detention basins, swales and permeable pavement. The tools allow for the production of detailed project cost reports and facilitate effective planning.
Green Values(R) Stormwater Calculator (Center for Neighborhood Technology)
The Center for Neighborhood Technology’s Green Values(R) Stormwater Calculator helps designers quantify the impact of green design features such as green roofs, drainage swales, permeable pavement, native landscaping, in reducing stormwater runoff.
In My Back Yard (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
A new online data mapping tool called IMBY (In My Backyard) allows users to estimate the potential for renewable energy production on any given site, whether it’s a backyard, a roof or an empty lot. It also helps users calculate the initial cost of the system, expected cash incentives, and the approximate number of payback years.
Recycling Landscapes & Hardscapes Calculator (Sustainable Cities Initiative)
This cost calculator estimates the cost savings associated with recycling and reusing hardscape (lumber, brick, concrete, and asphalt) and green waste (yard trimmings, leaves, plants, grass and other organic waste).
Sustainable Return on Investment (HDR)
HDR Architecture has created a proprietary excel spreadsheet that enables developers and site owners to calculate sustainable return on investment (SROI), which factor in non-cash internal, including improved health, safety, and worker productivity, as well as external benefits, such as reduced GHG emisisons.
Case Studies
Garden/garden: A Comparison in Santa Monica, Santa Monica, California (Sustainable Sites Initiative)
In 2003, the City of Santa Monica initiated a project which built two gardens in adjacent residential front yards, one landscaped in the traditional manner and the other with a climate-appropriate, sustainable design. The case study illustrates the economic and environmental advantages of landscaping with native plants.
Green building design offers an array of economic advantages over traditional building design in terms of reduced operating costs and increased occupant health and productivity. The inclusion of green roofs, green walls, and on-site renewable energy sources increase a building’s energy efficiency and reduces the need to purchase non-renewable electricity from external providers. The use of recycled construction materials also provides significant economic advantages by reducing costs associated with transporting materials and waste disposal.
Greener, more attractive working environments not only help increase productivity, but also offer added health benefits such as lower stress levels, which reduce sickness and absenteeism. Workers also tend to stay at their jobs longer, reducing the costs of recruiting and training new staff.
A Sustainable Return on Investment (SROI) approach to assessing the value of green buildings allows local policy makers and developers to quantify the value of increased worker productivity, improved health and air quality, reduced carbon emissions, and limited landfill waste.
Toolkits
Federal & State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency (U.S. Department of Energy)
This is a comprehensive source of information on federal, state, and local incentives and policies that promote renewable energy and efficiency.
Greening our Built World: Costs, Benefits, and Strategies (Greg Kats)
Using sophisticated modeling techniques, the study analyzes the costs and financial benefits of building green on both large and small scales, and addresses the role of the built environment in reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
Life Cycle Cost Analysis (Whole Building Design Guide)
Life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is a method for assessing the total cost of facility ownership. It takes into account all costs of acquiring, owning, and disposing of a building or building system.
Nature and Consumer Environments (Nature Within)
A series of studies shows that consumer behavior is positively influenced by the presence of trees. Adding trees to the urban environment benefit cities, merchants, and consumers.
Assessment Tools
Building Retrofit: Simplified Lighting Energy Savings Estimator (Sustainable Cities Initiative)
This tool provides an estimation of the energy and cost savings as well as the potential reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and coal consumption that can be achieved by switching to higher efficiency lighting.
Energy Star ® Cash Flow Calculator (Sustainable Cities Initiative)
This calculator is ideal for users interested calculating whether and how to invest in Energy Star equipment.
Heating Fuel Cost Calculator (Building Green)
This web calculator allows individuals to compare the cost of different fuels by selecting a fuel, entering your local price, and choosing a heater and distribution system.
Checklists
Green Building Finance (Council of Development Finance Agencies)
This site provides a list and summary of tax credits and financing opportunities available for green building development.
Modeling Software
Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES) (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
BEES measures the life-cycle environmental and economic performance of a site by considering acidification, air pollutants, ecological toxicity, eutrophication, fossil fuel depletion, global warming, habitat alteration, human health, indoor air quality, ozone depletion, smog, and water intake.
Case Studies
Center for Health and Healing, Portland, Oregon
This case study highlights the sustainable design principles used in this 16-story, 400,000 square foot, medical office and wellness building. It provides a comprehensive overview of its greening strategies and an analysis of its “greening costs” as well its projected utility savings.
If you know of useful resources we've missed, please send your recommendations to
info@asla.org. We appreciate your assistance in improving this guide.
