ASLF attends the 10th National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment: The New Green Economy.

 

 

 

 

Rethinking City Economics: How Green Infrastructure and Deconstruction can Provide Green Jobs, Revitalize Communities, and Encourage Local Self-Reliance - Presentation Summary

The purpose of this symposium is to demonstrate how a new community based economic framework can be established by providing unskilled workers with living wage green jobs through the utilization of green infrastructure, deconstruction, and other methods of resource recovery.  Unlike other models for the creation of green jobs, our theory looks at green jobs and green infrastructure at a community-wide level.  Rather than establishing isolated, environmentally-friendly jobs, our model illustrates how our communities can be transformed and made more self-reliant.  Not only do the jobs created by such a model provide employment for an unskilled workforce, however they also allow for stormwater management, urban farming and self-sufficiency.

Many American cities are plagued by problems such as pollution, unemployment and vacancy, and are currently  in a state of decline because of them.  Various new technologies and methodologies have emerged to address contemporary urban issues, two of the most promising of which are deconstruction and green infrastructure.  Deconstruction, or the planned dismantlement of buildings for resource recovery, is proven to create short and long term jobs in deconstruction, material retail, and new construction.  The practice stimulates local economies through the sale of recovered materials, and recovers valuable resources, such as labor, land and raw materials, helping to revive the communities they come from.  Green infrastructure (GI) has recently emerged as an alternative stormwater management method and is currently being integrated into stormwater litigation around the country.  GI has the potential to create short term jobs in initial implementation, long term jobs in monitoring and maintenance, and is a potential income generator by means of urban forestry, agriculture or bio-mass production.  Deconstruction and green infrastructure are particularly well suited to work synergistically, where deconstruction can free up land for permanent or temporary GI, to address pressing urban problems such as pollution, unemployment and vacancy.