About us
The wider GIC team includes green infrastructure experts, ecologists, designers and arboriculturalists.
Gary Grant CEnv FCIEEM,
Technical Director
Gary is a founding Director of the Green Infrastructure Consultancy, leading our technical team and supporting clients across all our projects. Gary also advises on national policy, design codes and speaks at many conferences and events.
Before starting the Green Infrastructure Consultancy, Gary was a Director with AECOM where he was responsible for advising the design and planning team on the ecological aspects of large-scale projects. These included the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi and Whitehill Bordon Eco-town.
Green infrastructure has been Gary’s work for more than 35 years. He co-authored the English Nature Research Report No 498 on Green Roofs and is author of Green Roofs and Facades (BREPress), Ecosystem Services Come To Town (Wiley) and the Water Sensitive City (Wiley).
Gary is a Chartered Environmentalist, Fellow of the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, Fellow of the Leeds Sustainability Institute, and Thesis Supervisor at the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, University College London.
Tim Gardner,
Managing Director
With over 20 years experience in the Built Environment sector, Tim is now managing director of The GIC Ltd and an accredited assessor for ‘Building with Nature’.
A vast level of experience, including being a fully qualified accountant, enables an overview of projects and developments, along with business development and customer care.
Green Infrastructure Team
The wider GIC team includes green infrastructure experts, ecologists, designers and arboriculturalists.
Tim Gardner, Managing Director
Gary Grant, Technical Director
Jon Price, Senior Green Infrastructure Consultant (Wales Lead)
Sara Morris, Senior Green Infrastructure Consultant
Ben Wagstaffe, Green Infrastructure Consultant
Eli Hendi, Green Infrastructure Consultant
Our partnerships
GIC is a member of the UKGBC and is supporting the development of cutting-edge guidance on Embodied Impact on Biodiversity
FAQs
Urban green infrastructure brings soil, water and vegetation into the built environment, which can benefit people and wildlife. It is not simply a new label for conventional parks. It does include existing open spaces, parks and woodlands as well as street trees, green roofs and walls, rain gardens and many other features. Green Infrastructure is intended to help our cities and other urban areas adapt to climate change, enhance biodiversity and improve health and wellbeing.
There are many benefits to well-planned and implemented green infrastructure. These include improved mental and physical health, reduced risk of flash flooding, summer cooling, better air and water quality, food and biodiversity.
Green Infrastructure can include green roofs, green walls, rain gardens, parks and gardens, street trees and even modest features like window boxes. Green infrastructure also includes natural areas, such as rivers, woods and verges.
Most towns and cities have excellent trees and parks, lakes and rivers. Increasingly they also include roof gardens, extensive green roofs, green walls and sustainable drainage elements including rain gardens. Inner London has more than 2 million square metres of green roofs.
The Urban Greening Factor is a policy initiative devised by the Greater London Authority as part of the London Plan. Based on a similar scheme called the Biotope Area Factor, developed in Berlin in the 1990s, it is a tool that evaluates and quantifies the amount and quality of urban greening that a scheme provides to inform decisions about appropriate levels of greening in new developments.
Yes. Well designed, well-built and carefully maintained green roofs reduce stormwater runoff, boost biodiversity, keep buildings warmer in winter and cooler in summer, improve air quality and provide a view that can reduce blood pressure and reduce stress.
Green Infrastructure is supported at national level through the National Planning Policy Framework as well as through local authorities, which have policies in local plans and in most cases have published green infrastructure strategies.