The year of green infrastructure

1 Apr 2010

Today is the first day of the new financial year, so an appropriate moment to reflect on what has been achieved over the past 12 months. Financially the LI has stabilised, is operating at a surplus, and has a quarter of a million pounds more in its bank account today than it did on 1 April last year.

Sorting out our finances has not taken the focus away from the essential work the LI needs to do on behalf of the profession. 2009-10 has in many respects been ‘the year of green infrastructure’. We began in May last year with the publication of our Green Infrastructure Position Statement. Following on from this we held five seminars for our members on green infrastructure around the UK. Nearly 300 members have taken part, and every seminar was heavily oversubscribed.

The case we set out in the Green Infrastructure Position Statement was used to argue for good quality landscape design and management with the Conservative Party, which ran an online policy development forum called ‘Future Countryside’. Over the summer the position paper informed the joint paper the LI produced with ICE, RIBA, RICS, RTPI and other professional bodies on flood management.

In recent days our GI Position Statement has helped us score another success. Last autumn, we gave evidence to the Environmental Audit Select Committee of the House of Commons. The Committee published its report in March, and its recommendations closely echo the green infrastructure approach the LI is arguing for.

At Ecobuild, we published ‘Making it home’, our housing position statement. Over the coming year we will be working on demonstrating the economic value of landscape architecture, and we will be asking members to send in case studies which will help us illustrate to government, public agencies and other clients why, in times economic hardship, they need the contribution of landscape architects more than ever before.