Launching new training program to help business increase investment in natural infrastructure

Honolulu, Hawai’i, 4 September 2016 – We’re excited to launch an online, free training course on Natural Infrastructure for Business (NI4Biz). This course will teach business leaders about the benefits of natural infrastructure projects.

We hope it will lead to increased investment in nature-based solutions that are good for business, society and the environment.

What is Natural Infrastructure?

Natural infrastructure is a natural system – like healthy mangroves or wetlands – that helps companies save money and benefit from nature. They are a great substitute for so-called gray infrastructure (such as dams or water treatment plants), and are integral to the health and wellbeing of natural ecosystems – the textbook definition of a “win-win.”

Natural infrastructure solutions can help businesses treat industrial water, restore productivity to degraded land, and/or reduce exposure to climate related risks, such as floods, landslides or storms. But many businesses aren’t aware of these great benefits. We’re here to help.

Making Natural Infrastructure Mainstream:

To raise awareness about the multiple benefits of natural infrastructure solutions, we launched the Natural Infrastructure for Business (NI4Biz) platform in 2015. This platform is a great introduction for business leaders and practitioners to get familiar with these kinds of solutions.

We’re excited to go even further with today’s launch of this Natural Infrastructure for Business (NI4Biz) Training Course.

Our President and CEO, Peter Bakker is excited, too. “For natural infrastructure solutions to be adopted worldwide, we need more companies to understand how these solutions can be useful. The NI4Biz training course aims to help companies understand and implement natural infrastructure solutions. It’s very comprehensive and is a great example of business action,” he said.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Wetlands International, ARCADIS and Shell were also involved in development of the course.

Erik Solheim, Executive Director at UNEP said it well: “In the coming years, business will be further hit by the impacts of climate change, such as droughts, floods and fires. But there is a solution within reach. By investing in natural infrastructure, such as forests and wetlands, companies can increase their resilience. We are proud to present this course with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development to enable companies understand the multiple benefits of natural infrastructure.“

We look forward to helping businesses understand and achieve these benefits.

About the course:

The course consists of free training material with easy-to-follow notes. This helps target the training sessions to business audiences. The course is designed to be an interactive workshop, and includes group exercises and facilitated discussions. It also features a new animated video, to help you explain natural infrastructure solutions to new audiences. Contact us to learn more.