Guidance on applying environmental intelligence to inform green investment

Abstract

In this paper we show how environmental intelligence (EI) can be used to obtain evidence to support green investments focused on land use in urban and rural areas. Specifically, we propose a six step R&D process to facilitate the development and use of advanced environmental monitoring equipment to inform green investments. The six steps are: problem definition, experimental design, indicator development, hardware and software development, investment performance evaluation and outcomes communication. To help show how EI can be applied to support green investments we use a live investment as a case study. The investment we focus on is the pedestrianisation of a section of the busy Strand-Aldwych gyratory in central London (England). We first describe our activities for each stage of the R&D process and conclude with recommendations to others considering using EI to help provide an evidence base for green investment.