Research by experts from industry and an environmental organization finds that incorporating nature into man-made infrastructure can improve business resilience - and bring additional economic, environmental and socio-political benefits. Experts from Shell, The Dow Chemical Company, Swiss Re, and Unilever, working with The Nature Conservancy, evaluated over 20 business case studies, and recommend that green infrastructure solutions should become part of the standard toolkit for modern engineers. Green infrastructure (Gl) should be part of mainstream business thinking. Gl employs elements of natural systems, while traditional gray infrastructure is man-made. Examples of Gl include creating oyster reefs for coastal protection, and reed beds that treat industrial waste water. The research team evaluated the assumption that green infrastructure can provide more opportunities than gray infrastructure to increase the resilience of industrial business operations against disruptive events such as mechanical failure, power interruption, raw material price increases, and floods. The evaluation concluded that hybrid approaches, utilizing a combination of green and gray infrastructure, may provide an optimum solution to a variety of shocks and improve the overall business resilience. The case studies gathered to support this research encompass a wide variety of possible applications of green infrastructure. They range from growing plants that cost-effectively remediate contaminated soil (phytoremediation), to constructing wetlands that naturally treat industrial waste water, to mitigating air pollution through innovative forest management approaches. Recurring benefits inherent to green infrastructure solutions relate to providing ecosystem services, promoting biodiversity, offering innovative approaches for engagement with local communities, while requiring less capital and less maintenance compared to gray solutions. For example, constructed wetlands can effectively remove residual hydrocarbons with significant reductions in energy consumption and green house gas emissions compared to a traditional gray waste water treatment plant. Also, the wetlands can provide habitat for fish and hundreds of species of migratory birds.
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