Community garden in Chiswick, London. As cities grow, denser, hotter, and more vulnerable to extreme weather, we have all heard the same hopeful message: “nature can save us”. Trees cool streets. Wetlands absorb floods. Parks improve air quality and bring communities together. In other words, Green and Blue Infrastructure (GBI), from urban forests, street trees, parks to rivers and wetlands, has become the new hero of sustainable cities. So why, despite all this enthusiasm, a

Laura Wendling, Karina Corada Perez, Mehri Khosravi Sustainability research Institute (SRI), University of East London London is often celebrated for its green ambitions, from net-zero commitments to its expanding parks, community gardens, and circular-economy projects. But the real strength of this city lies in its people. In London, any vision of sustainability must begin with belonging. A community cannot be sustainable if some people are pushed out of belonging. East Lond

For a long time, urban development has largely separated human populations from nature, with only a few specialist (non-human) species able to persist in urban areas. Recently, there has been increasing recognition of the impact of the loss of nature on our communities and the cost of trying to replace these lost benefits. Renaturing approaches are now gaining more popularity, with green roofs and walls appearing across our cities, and biodiverse areas like wildflower meadows

One of the most pressing problems in urban development is how to construct the infrastructure and homes that our communities require...

For two months this summer, I had the incredible opportunity to work as an intern at the University of East London's Sustainability...

What is the UNP+ Project? Under the EU Biodiversity Strategy and supported by the Nature Restoration Regulation, the European Commission...

This month the SRI has launched its new Affiliates Programme. The programme is designed to provide an opportunity for researchers in...

Summertime overheating in homes has been identified as a health risk in many temperate regions where domestic air-conditioning is rare,...