Andrew Johnstone, CEO of specialist Wiltshire-headquartered landscape consultancy Johnstone Landscapes Ltd, discusses the growing uptake of green infrastructure projects both in commercial and domestic environments.

Andrew Johnstone:  I am increasingly aware of a positive shift in approach amongst a growing number of landscape contractors and landscape architect practices. Those that see the bigger picture in terms of green infrastructure. It is encouraging to find that more forward-thinking organisations are increasingly considering using the nature-based solutions afforded by green infrastructure.

We are regularly asked to complete commercial projects with hard landscaping solutions i.e. fencing and walling, but over the last few years I have felt inclined to start a different conversation with the client around considering a softer (and somewhat startlingly obvious) alternative - hedging/planting/swales etc.

Green roofs, sustainable urban drainage and strategic planting among long-term solutions to tackle climate change impacts

Green infrastructure is an increasingly important means for tackling water-related challenges of drought and flooding in the urban and rural landscape, together with protecting precious water resources and water quality in surface and groundwater.

Planting can provide a tool to do what nature always managed to do rather well before we expedited climate change, rather than expensive hard infrastructure solutions, which can really change the scape in an unnecessary and potentially damaging way.

The National Planning Policy published in July this year asks planners and developers to “take a proactive approach to mitigating and adapting to climate change, taking in to account the long-term implications for flood risk, coastal change, water supply, biodiversity and landscapes”. Food for thought and something I am seeing come through plans we are asked to tender for. This is surely a good thing.

When creating beautiful spaces and environments for clients, we increasingly have to build in long-term solutions to tackle the growing impacts of climate change – either by mitigation or adaptation.

Higher temperatures cause the atmosphere to not only retain more water but also to let more rain fall – often resulting in wet areas becoming more saturated and the already dry areas becoming even more parched. This is not a new phenomenon but it is one that I am inclined to consider more when I am asked to design or build a garden or reconfigure parkland.

We are also (thankfully) being asked to plant more and more trees. It can feel overwhelming to think about such disparate weather conditions in a global way but if we all start to deal with it locally, we will be making the right steps.

Image: Bath reservoir site - before landscaping

Green roofs, sustainable urban drainage, strategic planting - they can all play a valuable role to tackle the increasing frequency of weather-related challenges – drought, floods, conserving water resources, urban heat island effect, to mention just a few.

SuDS are one of our key solutions

Image: landscaped reservoir 

Some of our recent work on green roofs and reservoir landscaping to protect biodiversity is a case in point. A recently completed project with Wessex Water was to adapt 2500 sqm of a concreted padded roof above an enclosed reservoir in the heritage City of Bath, turning it into a green lung for students at one of the City’s schools. It has provided,as Octavia Hill advocated,‘an open-air sitting room’.

Reservoir landscaping design scheme

A necessary part of the project was the drainage layer in the form of a dispersing sponge underneath the planting layer. We have to think a lot harder in order to ensure water has somewhere to go. Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) have for a while been one of our key solutions – they can prevent water pollution and flooding in urban areas and also create green spaces and habitat for wildlife in towns and cities.

Interestingly, green infrastructure not only covers landscaping in the built environment, it is also equally applicable to rural projects.

Business case for accelerating mainstream capital and investment to encourage uptake of natural infrastructure

The Nature Conservancy has just launched the Water Fund - developed by cities and conservation practitioners, the fund is an institutional platform aimed at helping communities improve water quality by bringing water users together to collectively invest in upstream habitat protection and land management.

“Traditional urban water management systems that focus on engineered solutions—like aqueducts, pipes, and drains— will likely be insufficient to deal with pressures like global urbanisation and climate change on their own. These ‘business as usual’ solutions are expensive, degrade over time, and can have devastating effects on the health of rivers, floodplains, and wetlands.”

Key aims of the global Water Funds Network are:

• for natural, or ‘green’, infrastructure to be understood and valued and for it to become part of mainstream infrastructure planning and investment;
• for large corporations to appreciate the role that well-managed natural infrastructure—including rivers and wetlands—can play in long term business resilience and commercial success;
• for mainstream capital and investment to be mobilized towards natural infrastructure as an effective and cost-efficient way to harness the power of nature to accelerate the move to a water secure world.

In my view there is a good business case to be made for a similar initiative to be put in place in order to accelerate the uptake of green infrastructure across the UK.

Greater collaboration by more groups – including local authorities and private sector water companies – would be a powerful starting point – and it might help to ease the potential barriers access to funding can normally present.

Growing level of awareness among clients of benefits green infrastructure can deliver

I’d also like to see larger corporate bodies with multi-site locations - Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Booth’s, together with the ever increasing site acquisitions by Lidl and Aldi, as well as our own NHS and MoD, explicitly factor in the use of green infrastructure in their sustainability and other annual reports.

We’re finding that whether we’re creating a significant new garden for a client or helping a local authority with their ongoing landscaping maintenance activities, there is a growing level of awareness among all our clients of the benefits that green infrastructure can deliver.

They derive a great deal of satisfaction from knowing that what they’re doing at a micro level ultimately contributes to the bigger picture at the macro level. And we’re passionate about helping them to get there.

People who understand and see the benefits of what they set out to achieve become strong advocates of taking this approach, as opposed to more traditional hard engineering solutions.

Green infrastructure should be brought into mainstream thinking to plan and manage rural and urban environments

We need to bring green infrastructure into mainstream thinking on how we plan and manage our rural and urban environments.

The RHS is doing a lot of work in this area – its new report published last year Gardening in a Changing Climate highlighted the importance of gardens in terms of their interaction and ability to assist with the natural environment, including outlining ways in which gardeners can manage their garden to enhance flood alleviation. A lot of people are starting to do their bit.

The RHS report says that at a national level, gardens will become increasingly important over the coming years, especially for flood protection, local climate buffering and the provision of green space for wildlife.

It also calls on policy makers at both a national and local level to prioritise the importance of maintaining green spaces and private gardens in new housing developments.

It is our challenge as professionals in this sector to ensure we offer our clients the practical means to achieve this – and to provide them with the equally important inspiration to embrace green infrastructure.

Johnstone Landscapes Ltd is a specialist Wiltshire-headquartered landscape consultancy with a specific focus on delivering green infrastructure projects both in a commercial and domestic environment. Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it