Advancing Sustainability & Climate Resilience
Principles & Practices for the Journey
We have distilled lessons learned from our members into principles of advancing sustainability and climate resilience through green stormwater infrastructure. Explore each principle and learn about its associated best practices:
Principle 1: Position GSI as an engine for achieving core sustainability and climate resilience goals.
Position Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) as a powerful engine for achieving your community’s core goals rather than viewing it as a standalone demonstration project or a strict regulatory requirement. By embedding GSI into essential infrastructure and standard development practices, you transform everyday urban planning into lasting climate resilience.
Explore the Center Equity and Build Buy-In framework chapters for proven strategies on inspiring leadership and cultivating broad support for GSI.
Mainstream GSI programs within established policies and frameworks.
Appoint a dedicated convener, such as a GSI Manager, supported by a clear governance structure to drive integration across departments. Weave GSI directly into municipal master plans—including climate, sustainability, comprehensive, hazard mitigation, and capital improvement plans—as well as departmental SOPs and procurement specifications.
Resource: See Section 4 of the Climate Resilience Resources Guide for a discussion of strategies for integrating GSI and climate resilience policies.
Quantify and showcase community co-benefits.
Leverage co-benefit calculators, academic partnerships, and peer case studies to demonstrate how GSI reduces flood risk, lowers urban heat, improves traffic safety, boosts biodiversity, and drives local economic development. Incorporate these metrics into benefit-cost analyses to clearly illustrate long-term lifecycle savings and avoided costs compared to traditional gray infrastructure.
Case Study: How Two Cities Measured Sustainability and Climate Resilience Co-Benefits with the GSI Impact Calculator
Resource: GSI Impact Hub Guides & Calculator
Align site selection and design with local resilience goals.
Partner across planning, engineering, and maintenance teams to identify high-impact locations. Look for multi-functional opportunities, such as incorporating cooling canopies or real-time weather stations at community hubs, while actively engaging residents throughout the design phase. Proactively address potential challenges like green gentrification by partnering with housing advocates to protect local affordability.
Case Study: How the Milwaukee River Watershed Conservation Partnership Bridges Urban and Rural Land
Resource: See Section 5 of the Climate Resilience Resources Guide for a discussion of siting GSI facilities to enhance climate resilience.
Elevate public awareness and community engagement.
Partner with schools, libraries, and local organizations to launch environmental education and community science initiatives. Install accessible, multilingual signage detailing site ecology, engineering features, and sustainability achievements to foster civic pride and long-term support.
Principle 2: Plan and design for evolving conditions, drawing on localized expertise.
Climate resilience demands green infrastructure programs that are both adaptable and forward-looking. To ensure GSI assets deliver lasting value, programs must proactively plan for wide-ranging community impacts, design infrastructure for evolving future conditions, and draw deeply upon localized community expertise.
Navigating future climate impacts brings distinct challenges, including gaps in accessible, localized, non-proprietary data, as well as the funding, time, and training needed to build and utilize predictive models effectively. The best practices below offer actionable strategies to navigate these hurdles. For further guidance, explore the forthcoming Plan chapter of this framework.
Leverage local climate data, modeling, and research.
Collaborate with climate experts across disciplines to design GSI systems capable of withstanding diverse environmental hazards and future climate scenarios. Partner with government and academic institutions to integrate updated planting zones and climate-adjusted rainfall projections into local engineering standards. Apply scenario modeling to evaluate sewer hydraulics, hydrological performance, and plant longevity, ensuring all data and tools reflect your specific context—whether managing coastal vs. inland risks or combined vs. separated sewer systems.
Resource: See Section 2 of the Climate Resilience Resources Guide for a discussion of regional climate impact drivers and tools for assessing past and future climate change.
Integrate place-based knowledge into GSI planning.
Ground your GSI initiatives in local expertise by co-designing and planning alongside residents, landowners, and maintenance crews. Form meaningful partnerships with local Tribal nations to enrich green infrastructure programs with Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and long-term land stewardship practices.
Principle 3: Collaborate to advance shared sustainability and climate resilience goals.
Strategic partnerships empower organizations to pool resources, leverage data, and maximize community assets for far greater collective impact. By aligning around shared resilience objectives and securing early, tangible wins, partners build the trust and momentum needed to sustain successful long-term collaboration.
For additional guidance, explore the Build Buy-In and Center Equity framework chapters, as well as the forthcoming Maintain, Monitor, and Manage chapter.
Engage in government-community collaboration through stewardship programs.
GSI stewardship programs offer valuable, multi-faceted benefits. Local stewards often handle intricate maintenance, like hand-weeding, more meticulously than general landscaping contractors. These initiatives also foster mental and physical well-being by connecting residents with nature, social events, and environmental art. Furthermore, working side by side with municipal staff strengthens civic trust and community connection.
Establish stewardship frameworks early in the project lifecycle, ensuring historically underserved voices actively shape decision-making. Partner with local organizations and educators to co-design programs, and directly compensate community groups anchored in climate and sustainability work. To motivate participation, offer engaging social events, educational opportunities, and financial incentives like rebates or utility credits.
Note that not all GSI locations are suitable for community involvement; sites along busy roadways or behind secured facilities pose safety risks. Work closely with maintenance crews and public safety personnel to identify safe, high-impact locations for community stewardship.
Engage in watershed-level intergovernmental initiatives.
Ecological boundaries rarely match jurisdictional borders. Pursuing regional sustainability and climate resilience through multi-level partnerships (spanning federal, state, and local agencies) maximizes resource allocation and environmental impact. Smaller municipalities, in particular, gain access to critical expertise, shared staffing, and joint funding opportunities through regional alignment.
Navigating governance differences, regulatory variations, and administrative oversight across borders can present hurdles. Formalizing intergovernmental Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) focused on specific, shared priorities helps streamline cooperation. Communities can also establish independent administrative bodies or partner with established regional environmental organizations to manage cross-jurisdictional efforts effectively.
Principle 4: Design and build in harmony with natural ecosystems.
Craft GSI assets that actively restore, protect, and enhance local ecosystems. Engage all key partners early in the design stage to avoid costly project delays. For further guidance and deeper insights, explore the Design and Build chapter.
Resource: See Section 6 and Appendix C of the Climate Resilience Resources Guide for a discussion of GSI design improvements for climate resilience.
Protect and preserve high-value natural areas.
Take a watershed-scale approach to stormwater. Whenever possible, prioritize non-structural “no construction” solutions that preserve existing open spaces and natural drainage paths. Mitigate development pressures and zoning constraints through proactive stakeholder engagement and strong municipal partnerships.
Deploy vibrant, vegetated GSI.
Maximize co-benefits—such as urban cooling and biodiversity boost—by prioritizing vegetated GSI. Ensure long-term success by matching plant selection with ongoing maintenance capacity and cultivating community pride through public outreach.
Select climate-resilient vegetation and soil media.
Tailor plant choices and soil specifications to withstand extreme local microclimates, from intense droughts to freezing conditions. Optimize species selection to strengthen local pollinator networks and enhance ecological resilience against urban environmental stressors.
Case Study: How West Creek Conservancy is Growing Native Plants and Local Connections
Design holistically for water quality, quantity, and conservation.
Go beyond basic drainage requirements. Engineer GSI assets to optimize water quality treatment and water efficiency, prioritizing resilient native plantings that eliminate the need for long-term artificial irrigation.
Champion urban trees and healthy soil as critical infrastructure assets.
Conduct tree canopy inventories and quantify ecosystem services to justify tree protection policies. Update streetscape standards to guarantee sufficient soil volume, aeration, and nutrient quality required to sustain mature trees for generations.
Resource: City of Minneapolis Biochar Story: Bloomberg Climate Challenge.
Specify low-carbon, sustainable, and resilient materials.
Reduce supply chain emissions by sourcing local materials and specifying sustainable products certified for bird safety and dark-sky compliance. Seek third-party verification to showcase and benchmark your project’s sustainability achievements.
Principle 5: Establish a sustainable, resilient maintenance program.
Effective maintenance is the backbone of long-term GSI success, serving as a vital driver for community sustainability and resilience. To build a seamless workflow, actively engage public works, groundskeeping, procurement, and budget teams early in planning. Proactively navigating common hurdles—such as tight funding, reliance on volunteers, and stringent permit schedules—ensures lasting asset performance.
For deeper strategies, see the forthcoming Build Workforce & Capacity and Maintain, Monitor, and Manage chapters of the Framework of GSI Practice.
Champion eco-friendly maintenance practices and circular materials.
Enhance soil health and plant longevity using organic amendments like biochar, while phasing out gas-powered landscaping tools to cut emissions. Honor the embodied carbon in existing GSI by troubleshooting and repairing assets rather than demolishing them; when decommissioning is necessary, prioritize deconstruction to reuse and recycle materials.
Resource: American Biochar Institute. Biochar-Augmented Stormwater Management Standards.
Strengthen community resilience through local hiring and workforce development.
Reinvest in neighborhood economies by embedding local hiring and workforce development provisions into GSI procurement agreements. Partner with disability advocates to create accessible career pathways, align training programs with recognized regional or national certifications, and provide clear opportunities for career advancement beyond entry-level roles.
Update operations and maintenance practices to ensure performance under future climate conditions.
Necessary changes may include more frequent operations and maintenance activities, such as irrigation, mulching, vegetation and soil replacement, and sediment removal. Labor and construction costs may increase due more frequent post-storm inspections and rehabilitation.
Resource: See Section 7 of the Climate Resilience Resources Guide for a discussion of assessing GSI operations and maintenance practices to adapt to climate change.