Australasian Green Infrastructure Network, a new peak body 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 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.

It has been well researched 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.

Junglefy CEO - Suzie Barnett and founding member of AGIN, states:

"Introducing nature into our cities is critical and to facilitate this we now have a peak industry body to lead and advocate on behalf of industry, government and universities, who are making our urban green future a possibility. I am honoured to have played a small role in it’s foundation and excited about what this kind of leadership collaboration can do for the future planning of our cities."

According to co-founder Ben Nicholson,

"We are forming this industry body to 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.

Jess Miller, former deputy lord mayor of Sydney and founder of Greener Spaces, Better Places says

“The future liveability of our cities depends on the creativity, expertise and collaborative efforts of

professionals who understand living systems. The Australasian Green Infrastructure Network are just those people. The formation of this association is timely, necessary and hopeful. I can’t wait to see what results from their collective efforts.”

World leading urban greening expert Dusty Gedge, Director of Livingroofs.org and UK Green Roof Organisation board member is thrilled by the prospect of this new Australian peak body saying that

“Green infrastructure addresses the challenges of urbanisation and climate change in cities and is best supported by active industry associations. It’s great to see the establishment of the Australasian Green Infrastructure Network.”

The next steps for AGIN are to convene its inaugural AGM, scheduled for mid 2023. In the meantime for anyone interested in learning more please visit the website: www.agin.org.au and register to join the database for future updates and networking events.