The City of London Corporation has recently updated its comprehensive Sustainability Planning Document (SPD), which provides guidance on how applicants should approach environmental sustainability along with key actions and measures for developments in the capital. As the bar is raised for sustainable development in the city, could other London Boroughs or even local authorities follow suit?
The ‘Local Plan Strategic Objective 4’ sets out the City of London Corporation’s vision for environmental sustainability, aiming to ensure that it remains at the forefront of positive action in response to climate change and other sustainability challenges facing urban environments.
Importance of Climate Resilience
Recent extreme weather events, such as the heavy rains and flooding that cancelled New Year’s celebrations in other cities like Edinburgh, and the powerful winds from Storm Darragh highlight the urgent need for enhanced urban climate resilience. These events caused significant disruptions and damage, underscoring the importance of proactive measures to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
The City of London Corporation’s updated SPD is a crucial step in this direction, providing a framework for sustainable development that can help the city better withstand and adapt to extreme weather conditions. GreenBlue Urban is well-positioned to collaborate with London Boroughs and local authorities to make this vision a reality, offering the necessary expertise and products to enhance the city’s green infrastructure.
Importance of the SPD
This SPD is important for several reasons:
- Promotes Sustainability: It ensures that new developments and refurbishments are designed with environmental sustainability in mind, helping to reduce the ecological footprint of buildings and urban spaces.
- Policy Compliance: It provides clear guidance on how to meet the requirements of existing and emerging local policies, ensuring that developments align with the City Plan 2040 and the Local Plan 2015.
- Consistency and Clarity: By outlining what is expected in planning applications, it helps applicants understand and meet the standards required, leading to more consistent and higher-quality submissions.
- Future-Proofing: The document is designed to be flexible and updated as new sustainability practices and technologies emerge, ensuring that developments remain relevant and effective in addressing sustainability challenges.
- Public Sector Equality Duty: It ensures that sustainability efforts also consider equality and non-discrimination, fostering inclusive and equitable development practices.
Overall, the SPD helps create a more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive urban environment, benefiting both current and future generations.
Key Focus Areas
The SPD has been developed and refined through consultations with the public and industry experts, as well as insights from leading sustainable building proposals. It is a crucial step in helping the City of London achieve net zero by 2040, build climate resilience, and promote sustainable growth.
The SPD covers five key sustainability themes, applicable to all development proposals within the City of London, which include:
- Retrofit and Reuse
- Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy Use
- Circular Economy
- Climate Resilience
- Urban Greening and Biodiversity
Climate Resilience
The City’s ‘Climate Action Strategy and Adaptive Pathways’ study identified six key climate change risks: flooding, water stress, overheating, new and emerging pests and diseases, disruption to food trade and infrastructure, and impacts on biodiversity, all of which are increasing issues across the UK.
To address these risks, the SPD provides guidance to ensure climate resilience is embedded in the design process of each development. Nature-based solutions, such as urban trees, offer effective co-benefits for sustainability and well-being, including cooling urban areas, creating shade and shelter, and improving air quality. Using tree pits like GreenBlue’s RootSpace® ensure the trees can thrive in compact urban locations and still accommodate a range of underground utilities and services.
Mitigating Flooding
As the Lead Local Flood Authority, the City Corporation is responsible for developing, maintaining, applying, and monitoring a strategy for local flood risk management. The Local Flood Risk Management Strategy outlines their commitments to achieving flood risk mitigation objectives, including procedures to maximise the use of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) in new public realm works and developments.
Nature-based solutions like SuDS systems contribute to the climate resilience of sites by providing rainwater attenuation and protecting buildings and open spaces from overheating.
Improving Urban Greening & Biodiversity
The guidance states that urban greening should be designed to create both amenity and biodiversity-focused spaces, and to separate or combine them where appropriate to create conditions for biodiversity to thrive while ensuring that users of green spaces can enjoy their well-being benefits.
It is recommended that developers adopt a strategic approach to urban greening and biodiversity enhancements by linking with existing areas of biodiversity and surrounding pockets of green space, as well as schemes that are resilient to the changing climate and conditions in the City.
Combining the Green and the Blue
Flood mitigation and urban greening do not need to be done separately within developments. Combining the two can be more effective in the long run. SuDS that incorporate planting conditions integrate green space with sustainable water management, offering a multifunctional solution that enhances developments both practically and aesthetically.
This approach, known as blue-green infrastructure, improves water quality, reduces flood risk, supports biodiversity, and creates sustainable, low-maintenance developments that align with modern urban planning goals.
GreenBlue Urban have worked on a number of projects and initiatives in the Greater London area to help developers integrate SuDs into their developments.
- Rathbone Market, East London: StrataCells were utilised to support tree growth while allowing emergency vehicles to overrun close to buildings. An irrigation system ensures trees receive adequate water, integrating with other SuDS on the site.
- Marylebone High Street, Central London: GreenBlue Urban’s RootSpace®soil cell structure was used to create a load-bearing structure holding uncompacted soil. The tree pits act as a multi-functional solution to absorb the water runoff from the highway, acting as a soft planted rain garden as well as utilising the space as a tree pit.
- Floral Court, Central London: We provided solutions for planting semi-mature trees on a podium deck using the StrataCell soil cell system. This system, made from recycled materials, provide support greater vertical loads and allows for effective tree planting despite construction constraints.
Wider Impacts for Development
The updated Sustainability Planning Document (SPD) could have a wider impact on development as other local authorities may follow suit. The City of London is often seen as a leader in urban planning and sustainability initiatives and by setting a high standard for environmental sustainability, the SPD could serve as a model for other local authorities looking to enhance their own sustainability practices.
The SPD’s comprehensive approach to integrating sustainability into the planning process, including the use of SuDS, nature-based solutions, and blue-green infrastructure, provides a robust framework that other authorities could adopt or adapt to their specific contexts. This could lead to more widespread implementation of sustainable development practices, contributing to broader environmental and climate resilience goals.
As local authorities observe the benefits of the City of London’s initiatives, they may be encouraged to implement similar measures, fostering a more unified and effective approach to sustainability across different regions.
As the industry leader in tree pits and SuDS solutions, GreenBlue Urban is in a unique position to offer expertise and innovative solutions in urban areas. We have a proven track record of working effectively with local authorities, contractors, and designers to integrate green infrastructure into new developments, retrofitting projects, and city-wide environmental improvement initiatives.
