How can cities be both green and equitable? A new policy and planning toolkit provides municipal planners with a 50 tools to help find ways of providing affordable housing, while also improving green equity and ensuring that new green spaces benefit rather than displace local residents.

The toolkit – created by the Barcelona Laboratory for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability (BCNUEJ) in partnership with ICLEI Europe – puts the spotlight on urban green equity, or the fair distribution of and access to green spaces and amenities in cities. Work in this field must consider housing security among vulnerable residents, actively working to ensure that greening does not lead to displacement and gentrification.

Through research conducted in partnership amongst BCNUEJ's GreenLULUs project, and the NATURVATION and UrbanA projects in which ICLEI Europe is a partner, community activists, municipal planners and urban leaders were all engaged to help identify pathways to urban green equity that prioritise affordable housing. Research included conducting interviews in 40 cities across Europe, the United States and Canada. These findings are distilled into 50 policy tools in this new practical toolkit, which can be used in practice by urban change-makers.

The toolkit features:

• 30 anti-displacement/anti-gentrification policy tools organised by stakeholder type
• 20 equitable green development tools
• Simulations of possible applications of policy tools depending on urban context
• Recommendations for policy-makers in the EU, North American, and global contexts

The policy and planning path toward urban green equity lies in finding the right mix of anti-displacement and equitable green development tools. The toolkit will be a key starting point for policy-makers, planners, and community activists in cities across the world to take action and embrace the right to the green city as one that can and should be extended to all residents.

For more inforamtion, download the toolkit here.