The whole life carbon footprint of green infrastructure: A call for integration

With increasingly stringent environmental legislation affecting the water sector, a rethink of drainage infrastructure is needed. In this context, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and aiming at higher environmental water quality standards represents a main challenge. Green infrastructure (GI) has been deemed a low-carbon solution for stormwater management that can importantly contribute to improve this situation. This paper reviews eight studies assessing the whole life carbon footprint of GI and discusses common trends and limitations. It is argued that integrated approaches that incorporate a broader variety of conflicting objectives (e.g. carbon and water quality) and consider the urban drainage system on its entirety should replace current assessments in order to ensure that opportunities to understand and improve urban stormwater management are not missed in practice.

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