Earth Economics partnered with the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District to estimate the value of the co-benefits supported by their green infrastructure incentives for businesses, developers, and homeowners. We found that a 1-acre of rain garden in Franklin County provides as much as $74,000 in co-benefits each year, and that every time a rain barrel is filled, it saves $1.21 in irrigation costs.
The Nez Perce Tribe is investigating natural carbon solutions to restore soil health, habitat, and sequester atmospheric greenhouse pollution. In August of 2023, Earth Economics partnered with the Tribe to analyze the Tribe’s options for participating in carbon markets as sellers of wetland-generated carbon credits.
Earth Economics worked with Green Compass to value their projects in DC’s Stormwater Retention Credit trading program. When fully established, seven sites will create $1.3M in benefits to local communities every year, delivering a return of $7.80 for every dollar invested. Investment by CDFIs and Green Banks in groups who merge sustainability and community goals (such as Green Compass) will accelerate the pace of GSI throughout the District, creating strong social and environmental benefits for residents.
Earth Economics worked the Staten Island Coalition for Wetlands and Forests (an Anthropocene Alliance member group) to quantify the value of forest and wetland losses on Staten Island. The fact sheet, “Valuing Forest and Wetland Loss on Staten Island,” shows the scale of forest and wetland losses on Staten Island, focusing on the ecosystem services lost from the destruction of the Graniteville wetland.
Last spring, Earth Economics developed a thought experiment for Save the Sound of the Chittenden Park Living Shoreline project, to identify key limitations of FEMA’s BCA tools and processes. This project would implement nature-based erosion control designs to protect and restore the 155-acre seaward edge of the West River Marsh, which would in turn protect other assets (including built infrastructure) further inland. Securing FEMA support to restore the marsh would require the agency to consider the environment as critical natural infrastructure.
The Belle Pointe Coastal Mitigation Bank is a 387-acre Wetland Mitigation Bank in Louisiana. The bank was previously agricultural land, which flooded frequently and required levees and pumping to remain productive. Delta Land Services permanently restored the site to a forested wetland, planting native coastal bottomland hardwood and bald cypress. The new ecosystem will support resiliency in the face of storm surge, trees will clean air and sequester carbon in one of the most polluted areas in the US, and water quality from agricultural and industrial/commercial runoff will improve. Earth Economics found that the total value in ecosystem services permanently protected by the project was $101 million (USD 2021)—$1,813 per person per year for nearby residents and students.
Earth Economics partnered with Natural Resources Conservation Services to improve and expand our rangeland ecosystem service valuation framework, including the ecological effects of new conservation practices on the health of rangelands managed by the Bureau of Land Management within the Western Range and Irrigated Region of the Inner Basin West.
The Mott Haven-Port Morris Plan Waterfront Plan (“the Waterfront Plan”), developed through a community visioning process led by South Bronx Unite, aims to increase access to the local waterfront and create green spaces to improve quality-of-life, mitigate air pollution, create better health outcomes, and protect the community from flooding from coastal storms and sea level rise. Earth Economics, South Bronx Unite, and the Center for Sustainable Urban Development’s Resilient Coastal Communities Project collaborated to estimate the value of Waterfront Plan’s economic and community benefits.
This year, with funding from the Ingrid Rasch Legacy Fund, Earth Economics was able to offer pro bono services to PeaceTrees Vietnam, mapping the impacts of environmental and climate change-related hazards to support their work in the humanitarian mine action space. Sea level rise, extreme precipitation, and ongoing development all increase risk exposure and shift mine locations.
The Avahoula Climate Mitigation Project is a nature-positive investment by Delta Land Services and Pachama. The conversion of 7,200 acres of marginal agricultural land to forested wetland will create $80 million in benefits annually and protecting $2.7 billion in benefits in perpetuity (discounted at 3 percent) for 67,000 Louisiana residents and 46,000 tourists. By converting sub-optimal and climate vulnerable agricultural land to priority habitat, Avahoula mitigates climate change impacts and addresses the biodiversity crisis.
