Belonging at the Heart of Sustainability: London’s Communities Show the Way

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 London holds this tension visibly: soaring redevelopment beside longstanding neighbourhoods; rich cultural and faith communities alongside economic pressures; some of London’s greenest imagination and some of its harshest environmental burdens. This makes East London a powerful lens for understanding how inclusion, community resilience and environmental action can work together. As part of the Newham Green Economy Transition, a 2024 survey of 574 residents explored how people understand climate change, and how their everyday choices around food, travel, energy and consumption are shaped. The findings reveal a strong commitment to sustainable living while highlighting a stark reality: low-income households face the greatest climate burdens. A just transition in Newham must therefore be rooted in inclusion and belonging.

Fortunately, sustainability grounded in community connection is already thriving in neighbourhoods across Newham, especially in Beckton and the Royal Docks, where small, locally driven initiatives are quietly reshaping what sustainable, inclusive community life can look like. Across these neighbourhoods, people are working together in practical, hopeful ways: growing food, repairing and reusing items, sharing skills, learning together, and creating places where neighbours feel welcome. For example:

• Royal Docks Rain Garden, a community-oriented green corridor between Pontoon Dock and West Silvertown, improving flood resilience and biodiversity while offering a beautiful, accessible shared space. https://www.royaldocks.london/articles/royal-docks-rain-garden 

• Bonny Downs Community Garden (Newham), a vibrant example of socio-ecological resilience building, bringing together people of all ages to learn, grow, and celebrate cultural events and community festivals. https://bonnydowns.org/community-garden/ 

• People Powered Places (Beckton & Royal Docks), a resident-led funding model empowering local people to decide which community and environmental projects should receive support. https://www.newham.gov.uk/council/people-powered-places-1 

• Repair Café and Community Clothes Swap (Newham), free events combining electrical, bicycle, and clothing repairs with a clothing‑swap element, encouraging reuse while building social connection. https://www.newham.gov.uk/climate-action-newham/find-get-involved/5 

• The Right to Breathe project (Newham & Tower Hamlets), a powerful example of inclusive environmental health outreach. Led by researchers from SRI/UEL and local partners, the workshops blend science, yoga, and somatic practices to help people understand air pollution and learn practical strategies for reducing exposure. By pairing clear scientific insights with familiar wellness activities, the project creates a welcoming, culturally sensitive space for communities who may not typically engage with environmental issues.

• Beckton Park Rewilding Project, a community co-creation approach to understanding how locals use Beckton Park and how the park can be made a more inclusive space for both people and nature by making interesting spaces that add to the overall habitat mosaic but also create more interesting active travel routes and play spaces: https://www.newham.gov.uk/news/article/1030/newham-secures-further-funding-from-the-mayor-of-london-rewilding-fund 

Figure: Scenes from the Right to Breathe project. Community workshops held at Newham library (A) and the Aberfeldy Neighbourhood Centre (Poplar Harca, Tower Hamlets) (B).

These examples offer a clear lesson: sustainability begins close to home. It flourishes in the relationships we nurture, the spaces we share, the gardens we tend together, and the sense of welcome we extend to one another. These are not only environmental actions, they are about belonging. When everyone has a role in shaping the city’s future, sustainability becomes more creative, more resilient, and more grounded in lived experience. Inclusion is not an add-on: it is the foundation on which social, ecological and economic wellbeing rests.

In a city as vast as London and especially in the fast-changing landscape of East London these neighbourhood acts of belonging matter deeply. They remind us that a future worth building is one where everyone is included, everyone is valued, and everyone has a place.

Figure: Beckton Meadows, part of the Beckton Park rewilding transformation to make better spaces for people and nature in Newham.