Body to promote green roofs

A new peak body has been formed to bring government, industry and researchers together to facilitate the scalable adoption of green infrastructure such as green roofs, walls and facades in Australia and New Zealand.

The Australasian Green Infrastructure Network, also known as AGIN was officially incorporated as an association in November 2022.

Funding support, and 18 months of voluntary support, has already been received from over 30 organisations and individuals.

The vision for AGIN is to promote healthier, liveable, climate resilient communities through the uptake of green infrastructure – a key solution to the challenges of urban growth and climate change in the southern hemisphere.

Research proves that urban green infrastructure, or nature-based solutions, can benefit cities in multiple ways including: Reducing heat and surface temperatures;  Improving air quality by removing harmful pollutants;  Enhancing biodiversity; Reducing noise;  Absorbing stormwater runoff which reduces flash flooding and pollutants entering our waterways; Advancing health and wellbeing.

AGIN co-founder Ben Nicholson, said the new body will provide a platform for urban greeners who want to make a difference and create positive change.

“There is so much amazing work being done by people in government departments, at universities and in the green infrastructure industry, but it lacks an active central body to coordinate and drive further change.” he said.

Nicholson, together with AGIN co-founder Gail Hall, have been instrumental in already driving positive change in the industry.

Hall developed the Growing Green Guide and green policy including the creation of the Green Factor Tool, an intuitive web-based tool designed for the City of Melbourne to benchmark building scale green infrastructure, whilst Nicholson has contributed to greening Melbourne’s Laneways and providing technical expertise on constructing green roofs, walls and facades.

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