CASE STUDY

Enhancing Ecosystem Services & Reducing Business Costs

Dow wanted to explore restoration options for a portion of greenbelt at its Midland, MI facility that contains legacy site issues. The 37-acre parcel is located on the Tittabawassee River, adjacent to a park and brownfield site both owned by the City.

Baseline conditions at the Dow site and adjacent City-owned property

Dow’s standard restoration practice would be to cap the site and plant grasses. However, Dow wanted to consider whether alternative ecological restoration options that excavate the area and restore habitats could reduce operating and maintenance costs and enhance benefits such as water quality and noise reduction for Dow and the surrounding community.

A team from Dow, The Nature Conservancy and EcoMetrix Solutions Group used the precursor to the EI platform, ESII Tool, to evaluate three options for restoration of Dow’s greenbelt site together with the City’s brownfield site.

  • Standard brownfield restoration (SBR) on the greenbelt and brownfield site

  • Ecological restoration (ER) on the greenbelt, and standard restoration on the brownfield site;

  • Ecological restoration of both the greenbelt and brownfield site (ER+).

Ecological data was collected for both sites and the models were applied to each alternative design. Project managers, engineers, and experts in ecology and restoration used the outputs to further refine the designs to enhance specific ecosystem services: noise reduction, visual aesthetics, water filtration (removal of sediments), water nitrogen removal, and water quantity control.

Key Findings

The analysis showed:

  • Standard brownfield restoration would result in lower performance for a majority of ecosystem services than under baseline or ecological restoration.

  • Ecological restoration of both the greenbelt and brownfield site (ER+) would result in higher performance for all priority ecosystem services, except for water filtration, than under baseline or standard brownfield restoration (Fig. 2, Table 1).

The ER+ alternative would save Dow an estimated $2 million in operating & maintenance costs (mowing, fencing, etc.) over a ten-year time frame and provide numerous ecosystem services to the surrounding community (e.g., open space, improved aesthetics and storm water management) through the restoration of pre-settlement beech-maple forest, prairie, and wetlands. This project was successfully implemented, providing significant benefits to the city of Midland, especially during flood events.

Ecosystem service percent performance for the priority ecosystem services under baseline conditions and each alternative restoration design.

Ecosystem services in engineering units of measure for the priority ecosystem services under baseline conditions and each alternative restoration design.