Money Does Grow on Trees

Samuel Pressman, MS Sustainable Environmental Systems ’20

Raymond Figeuroa, Jr., Visiting Professor
Paul Mankiewicz, PhD, Visiting Professor
Leonel Ponce, Visiting Professor
Ira Stern, Visiting Assistant Professor
Erica Asainas, MS City and Regional Planning ’20
Isil Akgul, MS Sustainable Environmental Systems ’19

School of Architecture, Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment (GCPE)

Money Does Grow on Trees creates a framework for an educational and interactive digital platform to enhance urban well-being via greening land valuation and scaling ecosystem services in communities. An ecosystem services valuation report for each individual garden– which measures, quantifies, and monetizes the existing ecological layout–can serve as a valuation database for community gardens in NYC. Meant to represent the economic value of nature in the garden, this value can be added to the existing real estate value of the garden and ultimately show that there is value to be gained by protecting community gardens from development.

*Nos Quedamos, Huerto y Cultura, GAIA Technologies, EarthJustice, NYC Community Garden Coalition