Climate Change and Land Hero

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Posted on 23 July 2021

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Whilst the UK may be basking in the current heatwave, it serves as a reminder that we are seeing massive increases in temperatures worldwide, particularly in western parts of the United States and Canada. We are also seeing catastrophic flooding in parts of Germany, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland.

This increasingly chaotic weather is a warning that we are all facing some tough decisions in terms of what we can do with our built environments, including: 

• How we can make them greener (parkland, habitats for wildlife conservation and maintaining ecosystems)

• How we can make them more sustainable (using up brownfield land and making those sites greener, more energy-efficient and community-driven to improve the whole area)

• How we can make them healthier (trees help to combat pollution by absorbing carbon dioxide, green spaces offer opportunities for play, sport, and recreation, and contribute to the physical and mental health and wellbeing of occupiers). 

• How we can combat flooding and make it work for us (sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) can serve as attractive features which can be enjoyed by residents and support biodiversity, and building materials such as permeable pavement can be incorporated into developments, to drain excess water away safely)

At Land Hero, we believe that there are ways through this crisis if we can all pull together, even if this only amounts to small changes in our daily lives. Like the butterfly effect, small changes can lead to major changes.

At Land Hero, we intend to plot every available Brownfield property and site in the UK on one central map. 

We want feedback from communities about these sites and their views about what should be done with the land. 

We need to start taking back brownfield land in earnest and building greener, more sustainable communities. 

We also need to transform people’s attitudes and get them to realise that we can all become involved in combatting climate change and building greener, healthier spaces for our families to occupy in the future.

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