Putting a price on nature
Planting a forest to improve air quality may prove to be as cost-effective as expensive new pollution-control equipment, according to preliminary results from a novel experiment at a Texas chemical plant. Officials involved in the study say this innovative approach could become a test case before the Environmental Protection Agency, which has identified reforestation as a possible strategy to improve air quality. Leaders of an unusual collaboration between the Nature Conservancy, the largest international conservation group, and the Dow Chemical Co., a Fortune 100 company, told a Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) audience on Monday that they were encouraged by the initial findings’ confirmation that a dollars-and-cents approach to valuing nature may help businesses with their bottom line while improving the environment in their local communities. The two organizations received the 2013 Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership, an HKS prize administered by the Environment and Natural Resources Program at the school’s Belfer Center...