Blog Posts: green infrastructure

The decisions each country, business and investor makes today will directly impact global climate and development goals. Do it right and we can feed 9 billion people, provide clean electricity for all and grow the economy while protecting the environment.

When WRI's recent global office renovation earned LEED Silver certification, it joined more than 38,000 LEED projects that are reducing carbon emissions and improving building efficiency worldwide. As standards for greener construction are incorporated into national and local building codes, they are raising the bar for the future.

This Infrastructure Week, it's time to look beyond building new pipes and pumps. Growing, restoring and preserving America's "natural infrastructure" like forests can help secure clean water supplies.

Making our infrastructure cleaner and more sustainable could add as little as 5 percent to upfront costs, which could be fully offset by lower operating costs. WRI Board member and former President of Mexico Felipe Calderón reveals four ways to unlock capital for low-carbon infrastructure.

Read this blog post in English.

Nos últimos anos, graves crises de água têm preocupado as principais cidades do Brasil. No Rio de Janeiro, a poluição severa na Baía de Guanabara está colocando em risco as competições de vela e outros esportes aquáticos dos próximos Jogos Olímpicos. A...

Natural infrastructure, strategically managed natural and open spaces like forests or wetlands, can direct more clean water to cities by controlling water flows, preventing sediment buildup and absorbing pollutants before they flow into waterways.

Decision-makers oftentimes treat the services that ecosystems provide—like water filtration or flood protection—as a free benefit. A new issue brief can help them account for nature's full worth.

Global infrastructure challenges present opportunities to improve our cities. To ensure that these investments result in communities that are productive, livable and sustainable, we must change how we build, manage, and use our cities.

Securing clean water is becoming increasingly difficult in the United States. Infrastructure like dams and treatment plants are aging, water demand is increasing, and more frequent extreme weather events like wildfires and flooding are driving up the cost of water management.

It’s a complex problem, but one of the potential solutions is decidedly low-tech: Invest in nature.