How can cities be both green and equitable? BCNUEJ (Barcelona Laboratory for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability) have created a new policy and planning toolkit in partnership with ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability. It contains a series of tools to help municipal planners find ways of providing affordable housing while also improving green equity and ensuring that new green spaces benefit rather than displace local residents.

The discussion around urban green equity—the fair distribution and access of green spaces and amenities in cities—must consider the housing security of socially and economically vulnerable residents in neighbourhoods undergoing urban development and change. Through BCNUEJ’s GreenLULUs research conducted since 2016 (in partnership with Naturvation and UrbanA), BCNUEJ have engaged with community activists, municipal planners and urban leaders to find pathways to green equity that prioritise appropriate and affordable housing, and distilled the findings into a framework that can be used in practice by urban change-makers.

Based on qualitative interview data collected in 40 cities across Western Europe, the United States and Canada, the report presents a summary and analysis of 50 policy tools and policies that fight displacement and gentrification while also improving the accessibility and inclusiveness of green amenities and green spaces in urban contexts.