Sustainable Stormwater Management

Stormwater is traditionally managed by centralized governance, despite the inherently distributed nature of rainfall and the parceled management of our landscapes. As a result, our public agencies have developed regional gray infrastructure solutions.

This project, funded by the Great Lakes Protection Fund and led by Environmental Consulting & Technology, Inc., is about developing markets to encourage property owners to value and contribute to the management of stormwater. Specifically we examine whether and how organizations with stormwater management responsibility might pay for third party distributed stormwater services.

Greenleaf Advisors was asked to participate in this project given its financial market acumen combined with its deep stormwater and green infrastructure experience. Greenleaf Advisors was able to access networks within each city to identify leaders who would be likely participants in testing new markets.

Three market models for distributed stormwater solutions were developed:

• • Retrofitting stormwater management facilities (cisterns, detention ponds, etc.) with existing smart technology to control the release of water depending upon the value of the capacity at that point in time.
  • Conversion of underutilized urban brownfield sites into large-scale green infrastructure investments that provide inflow reductions.
  • Engagement of communities (e.g. residents, villages, insurance) to monetize avoided future flood costs by making landscape management choices that lowers flooding risk.

We have identified market participants for testing pilots in Chicago and Milwaukee (team members have done so in Detroit and other cities as well) Cities and industry participants are being brought together in workshops to further development the market concepts, which will be informed, in part, by the expertise Greenleaf brings relevant experience in the energy markets where distributed energy solutions connected to storage become a strategic asset for addressing wholesale power market needs. We would like to thank the Great Lakes Protection Fund for their generous support of this project.

Read the Greenleaf report here.