Valuing Green Infrastructure and Public Spaces

How do we quantify and monetise these assets in business cases and cost benefit analysis?

Hear from an expert panel on how we can better value and account for the benefits of green infrastructure and public spaces in long term government investment decision making now and into the future.

Our speakers:

• Peter Colacino – Chief of Policy and Research, Infrastructure Australia
• Kirsten Jensen – Principal Advisor, New Zealand Treasury
• Cassandra Wilkinson – Executive Director Policy and Budgets, NSW Treasury
• Dr Sorada Tapsuwan – Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO
• Prof Thomas Astell-Burt – Professor of Population Health and Environmental Data Science, University of Wollongong
• Dr Neil Perry – Senior Research Lecturer, Western Sydney University

The Department is developing a Sector Specific Framework that outlines best practice approaches to valuing these benefits to ensure our green and public spaces are consistently captured in policy and investment decisions. 

Find out more about the project: https://www.dpie.nsw.gov.au/premiers-priorities/valuing-green-infrastructure-and-public-spaces


ABOUT THIS EVENT

This is a virtual roundtable event where academics and policy makers will explore innovative valuation and policy approaches being used in other jurisdictions to account for the benefits of these crucial assets.

This event is offered free of charge.

This is a unique opportunity for the whole sector to hear from leading experts in this space.

It will give participants insight into how economic policy, research and practice is evolving to create greener public spaces and cities.

If you are interested in environmental and social policy, planning, economics or simply ensuring that the places we live are greener, more sustainable, resilient and diverse, this event will inform and inspire you.

Peter Colacino
Chief of Policy and Research
Infrastructure Australia
Peter Colacino is one of the leading voices in Australian infrastructure. He is responsible for driving Infrastructure Australia’s transformative policy and research agenda across all sectors and their current focus on sustainability, resilience, place-making, industry productivity and innovation. An accomplished leader with experience in strategy, policy and corporate affairs. Peter has held senior roles across politics, industry and government, including within some the world’s largest infrastructure operators. As Chief of Policy & Research at Infrastructure Australia, Peter led delivery of the landmark 2021 Australian Infrastructure Plan, the Market Capacity Program and the 2019 Australian Infrastructure Audit. Prior to that he was Executive General Manager of Growth and Partnerships at the NRMA.

Principal Advisor 
New Zealand Treasury
Kirsten Jensen is a principal advisor economist at the New Zealand Treasury, where she focuses on public finance and leads CBAx. CBAx is Treasury’s cost-benefit analysis tool, which is publicly available. Kirsten is responsible for the design and implementation of CBAx. The CBAx model and the application has evolved since its introduction in 2015. In “Valuing Impacts”, she shares the practical experiences from working with agencies to improve policy analysis. Approaches and methodologies for non-market valuation of policy impacts are key challenges that agencies face. Agencies can use CBAx to support wellbeing analysis in policy and budget initiatives and inform decision making. She teaches cost-benefit analysis at the New Zealand Government Economic Network and at Victoria University of Wellington. Kirsten has more than 20 years leadership experience at the New Zealand Treasury. She has led the Treasury budget and fiscal reporting teams delivering five New Zealand budgets. She was the lead advisor to the parliamentary select committee and led the cross agency team that amended the Public Finance Act and the State Sector Act and created the Crown Entities Act. Common themes in her work include fiscal management and public sector system reforms. She has a keen interest in lifting public policy practices and capability.

Executive Director Policy and Budgets
NSW Treasury
Cassandra Wilkinson is the Executive Director Policy and Budgets NSW Treasury, leading advisory work on infrastructure, transport, planning, environment, energy and water. Previous executive roles in NSW and Australian Government working in treasury, transport and microeconomic reform.

 


Dr Sorada Tapsuwan
Senior Research Scientist
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
Dr Sorada Tapsuwan is a Senior Research Scientist (specialisation in environmental and natural resource economics) with the Land & Water Business Unit of the CSIRO. She is an expert in non-market valuation and has valued various types of non-market goods and services. Sorada has published numerous non-market valuation studies in peer-reviewed journals, applying methods including contingent valuation, choice modelling, travel cost and hedonic property price (HPP) methods. Her research interests include the integration of social psychological constructs in the economic utility function to improve the predictive accuracy of human decision making and behavioural models. She has applied this integration of psychological and economic models in multiple contexts, including environmental water resource management, urban water demand management, agricultural water management (e.g. irrigation efficiency measures for water conservation), acceptance of alternative water supply sources, and ecosystem services benefits of water assets.

Thomas Astell-Burt
Professor of Population Health and Environmental Data Science  
University of Wollongong
Thomas Astell-Burt is the Professor of Population Health and Environmental Data Science and the Founding Co-Director of the Population Wellbeing and Environment Research Lab at the University of Wollongong www.powerlab.site. Thomas has a long-standing interest in the relationship between nature and human health, especially on the potential of green space to enrich environments for prevention of noncommunicable diseases. His research is located at the interface between population, wellbeing and environmental studies and has helped to support change in policy on urban greening in Australia, including through collaboration with external research partners such as Western Sydney Local Health District and Parks and Leisure NSW, as well as a range of government departments, NGOs and local councils.

Dr Neil Perry
Senior Research Lecturer
Western Sydney University
Neil is a Senior Research Lecturer in Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability. He specialises in progressive economics approaches to environmental economics and policy and in ecological economics, an interdisciplinary field of research emphasising the interdependence of economic and ecological values. His research on the economics of biodiversity conservation, policy to combat climate change, and the governance underlying the commercial kangaroo industry is published in Ecological Economics, the Journal of Economic Perspectives, and Wildlife Research. Neil’s applied research involves the use of cost benefit analysis and other economic analysis tools to promote sustainability and environmental and social values. He has completed research grants with local Councils, social housing providers and environmental organisations, and has three current research grants including an ARC Linkage grant on articulating value in cooperative housing.