Guest Blog: The value of non-woodland trees
Kieron Doick – Head, Urban Forest Research Group, Forest Research Were you aware that around 20% of the trees in the UK are outside of woodland? That’s not a new statistic and maybe it’s slightly out by now (after all it is from 2017). But – personally – I’m somewhat glad that it is […]
Is SuDS now becoming mainstream?
Over the past few months, the scandal of our sewage-polluted watercourses and seas in the UK has had widespread publicity. The public is rightly horrified that most of our British watercourses are not fit for swimming in and that untreated sewage spills have occurred so often – but not all of us are aware that […]
Embedding Landscape into Engineered Environments
Our urban environments are a complicated mixture of hard and soft finishes: concrete and grass, bricks and shrubs, tarmac, and trees. All require certain skills in design, and certain levels of maintenance. But as our climate changes, we need to revise our traditional designs to create more resilient future-proofed spaces. But what defines the correct […]
The Regeneration Generation – It’s Time!
With a worldwide focus on becoming Net Zero by 2050 (reducing our emissions by 50% to reach a pre-industrial temperature rise of 1.5 C) the focus is very much
Creating the Best Mixed Use Developments
Many of our town and city centres appear ghostlike when the commuters have returned to their suburban homes. The hustle and bustle of shopping and commercial areas where, during the boom times, office space was at a premium, and the financial incentives were great to convert residential properties into commercial space. This is a relatively […]
How to Combat the Effects of Drought on Trees
Am I the only one noticing that trees are turning colour this year before the end of July? Isn’t it a bit early for autumn colours? Why is this happening this year? There are a number of influencing factors why and when leaves turn yellow and fall from the trees: generally, it is when the […]
Local Collaboration Continues!
From his landscape gardening days, Dean Bowie has been at the forefront of enabling the establishment of healthy living trees for us and future generations to enjoy.
Guest Blog:- 30 Year Celebrations!
GreenBlue Urban develops products that help create sustainable urban landscapes for future generations by providing green and blue infrastructure solutions. On Tuesday 19th July 22, they celebrated their 30th Birthday in Manchester…and I managed to bag an invite! As always there was a focus on protecting water as well as promoting SuDS and to […]
Lets Become the Collaboration Generation
Different disciplines working together from early planning is often a hot topic discussed within industry seminars and resources. However, as we all know actions speak louder than words. Two planning professional bodies that require a close working relationship from the outset are Drainage Engineers and Landscape Architects as design work and strategy co-exist in the […]
30 Years of Industry Collaboration
GreenBlue has always been proud to innovate, communicate and collaborate on many levels and those that know us would agree, being keen educators, we have had to adapt during these past 2 years to a new way of working, thankfully the digital age is a wondrous thing and we have grown alongside it. Our CPD offerings have developed to take a hybrid approach […]
The Story Behind GreenBlue Urban
It’s hard seeing something that you have planted die; many of us have experienced the disappointment of losing a house plant, but how much worse when the plant is a tree; a tree which has been carefully propagated, grafted, trained, formatively pruned and grown in a nursery? What about if we lose a number of […]
30 Years of Continued Innovation
The last 30 years have been an astonishing journey – from a small one-person business operating from a domestic garage to today’s highly organised efficient operation, centred near Hastings and distributing to over 30 different countries. This growth has been driven by a desire to improve the quality of life for urban users globally by […]
Resilience at its Best!
In previous blogs, we have discussed resilience, what it means, how it can be achieved and how it can be maintained. In this piece, we celebrate projects in which GreenBlue Urban has been privileged to be involved, where we believe that excellence in resilience has been designed and implemented. Creating an inspiring yet resilient space […]
The Value of Nature Based Solutions
Throughout 2022 we have been highlighting the need for change to accelerate the implementation of nature-based solutions into new developments, and to retrofit green and blue infrastructure alongside existing. The multifunctional benefits are abundantly clear we need to educate on the value of NBS from the very outset. Together let’s quash the myths of Too […]
Recognising Resilience
During our #Resilientplaces campaign, we have asked the question: what does resilience mean to you? In today’s blog, we will dive deeper into transforming our mindset, recognising resilience, present and future. Having come across a recent phrase; May you live in interesting times Originally thought to be a Chinese saying, implying that “interesting times” usually […]
Retrofitting Resilience
We recently asked – What is resilience and how can we ensure our existing infrastructure can be made more resilient for the future with as little disruption as possible. It is, without a doubt, that our towns and cities are seeing the impacts of climate change with a greater need to develop greater resilience. It […]
What is Resilience?
Resilience is a current “buzzword”, particularly in relation to our urban spaces and infrastructure, but what does it mean? What defines resilience? Who defines resilience? And more importantly, what can every one of us do to encourage resilience? The Oxford Dictionary defines resilience as: “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness” and “the ability […]
Positively Stepping Forward into Spring
With trees in full blossom, birds singing, warmer and longer days, there is an air of much-needed positivity shedding light on what is still a very difficult time for many of us around the globe. Spring is a time for inspiration, leaping forward with the drive to start new projects with a new sense of […]
SuDS is Fun!
During a previous webinar “Simplifying SuDS for all” we heard from Chryse Tinsley of Leicester City Council who used the term “SuDS is Fun”: something we couldn’t agree with more! As we prepare to become “climate-ready”, what better way to educate on the importance of stormwater management and the mitigation of flooding than to bring […]
Simplifying SuDS for All!
What an absolute pleasure to host yet another Festival of Ideas Panel webinar! Our first of the year, it seemed like ages since we were all together online, secretly worried if how anyone else would show! Our listeners didn’t let us down and we had a fantastic range of attendees to listen in to another […]
Using Sustainable Drainage Systems to add Value to Development Projects
Using Sustainable Drainage features calls on developers, designers and planners to adopt a new way of thinking, and that can cause some level of resistance. However, Sustainable Drainage is not very far removed from existing civil engineering principles, when you seriously consider it. What does civil engineering do? It provides answers to problems. In this […]
Effective Community Engagement with SuDS
Community engagement plays a crucial role in enabling nature-based solutions to tackle the ongoing implications of climate change and the effects of flooding in our towns and cities. GBU’s mission is to be the interface between nature and the built environment, by doing so a collaborative approach is possible to enable the successful planning, design, […]
There’s more to managing stormwater than ‘pipe to pond’
Looks all too familiar, doesn’t it? Far too often we are seeing images across our news channels on localised and global flooding. According to the UK Environment Agency, over 5 million homes are at risk of flooding in England alone. The average cost of flooding to a home is £30k and the mental health impacts […]
Mission – Possible!
The negative effects of climate change we see and hear worrying, the proven statistics are even more so. Whilst we at GreenBlue Urban understand the urgent challenge of Climate Change, it is often presented as barely possible to halt; nevertheless, humankind has the power to press the brakes on what feels like a runaway train. […]
Global Climate Change – A Paradigm Shift Required
Adapting to Climate Change has never been so important; as the BBC reported just this week the past seven years have been the hottest on record. In 2021, Europe lived through its warmest and wettest summer and record temperatures were reported in Western US and Canada; extreme wildfires killing hundreds – all these statistics are […]
