Mark Tercek: Green Infrastructure Outperforms Gray

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An oyster reef costs about the same amount of money - $1 million per mile - as a seawall. But when you consider other factors outside of cost, the oyster reef wins by a mile.
Mark Tercek, president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy, says his group has applied NOAA stimulus funds to several reef projects in the Gulf of Mexico, and now has data to report. "We showed that for $1 million we could build one mile of oyster reef in the gulf," Tercek says. As it turns out, that is about the same price tag for one mile of first-rate seawall. But the comparisons end there.

Man-made infrastructure, Tercek says, will depreciate. It will decline in value through wear and tear. "The oyster reef, if we take care of it," he says, "will more than hold its value. It might even appreciate in value over time."