Organization: Nature-Based Global Resource Centre

Year of publication: 2021

Type of green infrastructure: Natural infrastructure

Summary: An estimate of how much nature-based infrastructure can save costs and create value relative to traditional grey infrastructure.

New research shows that nature-based infrastructure (NBI) is up to 50% cheaper than traditional "grey" infrastructure to provide the same infrastructure service. In addition, NBI provides 28% better value for money than grey infrastructure. These numbers are based on the International Institute for Sustainable Development's (IISD) Sustainable Asset Valuation assessments of various NBI projects.

To put these figures into context, IISD undertook a literature review on the global infrastructure gap and the extent to which a portion of this could be filled by using NBI. This review allowed IID to estimate a global range of cost savings and value creation that NBI brings in comparison to "grey" alternatives. THey found that if we met our current global infrastructure needs but swapped just over 11% of this with NBI-rather than traditional or "grey" infrastructure-we would save USD 248 billion each year, out of the USD 4.29 trillion needed annually. These savings could relieve some of the hefty strain already placed on public budgets by the ongoing health crisis and go to other urgent investment needs.

Link: investment-in-nature-close-infrastructure-gap.pdf 914 KB