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 […]
Top Tips for Getting Winter Ready!
Designing and maintaining landscapes that not only provide vibrant, colour throughout the summer but also easily handle the bleak conditions of winter is certainly a challenge! The most effective strategy is often to utilise hardy herbaceous plants (groundcovers, perennials, grasses, and annuals), that die back in the winter, enabling exposure to harsh conditions that transform […]
Plant a Tree for 23
National Tree Week is finally here, time to get the wellies on and venture outside to plant a tree that will thrive in 2023, join us for our annual #letsgetplanting campaign! Trees and hedgerows are some of the most powerful resources in mitigating climate change. The critical factor of this method is that we can all […]
Let’s Get Planting – National Tree Week
As the winter nights draw in those daily walks become shortened as the day becomes dark and we wait for weekends to enjoy those crisp autumnal walks along our valuable public green space. Consequently, at GreenBlue we feel that now is a perfect opportunity to celebrate National Tree Week. 27th November – 5th December sees the most significant […]
Onsite or Offsite, the Biodiversity Dilemma
Biodiversity net gain: three words that might strike terror into the heart of someone who wishes to build on their land. What is it, and how can I comply with upcoming legislation? The BNG legislation included within the Environment Act 2021 is simply a requirement to increase measurable biodiversity on a designated parcel of land by a minimum of […]
Getting Autumn Ready – Let’s Get Planting!
It’s time to wish the summer of 2022 goodbye. The leaves are falling from the trees, the darker evenings are setting in, yet nature continues to grow. With tree planting season upon us, the well-known statement: “Right tree, Right place, for the right reason and in the right way” comes to the forefront of our minds once again. […]
How Much Space is Required for SuDS?
Early in the development process comes the allocation of land for buildings, paving, open space and drainage requirements – usually this allocation is reflected in the value of the land. The land is a diminishing resource, and to make profits, developers have to allocate land in the most effective way. For generations, the percentage of […]
Resources to Enable Green Infrastructure Targets
When designing a new development proposal, how many times have you received pushback with regard to how much green infrastructure is on your plans? Too little? Too much? No matter how big or small, and no matter what the current state of the plot is, we must demonstrate a measurable increase in the biodiversity fostered […]
Bringing Nature to your Doorstep
Biodiversity surrounds us in our everyday lives without us even noticing, from the birds in the trees above us, to the worms in the soil beneath the insects that fly around us and us. We live in a world where nature came first, yet with all the publicity of climate change, we still continue to […]
LTOA assessing Tree Establishment in Hackney!
Street tree planting is a much-debated subject, and one about which everyone involved has their own opinion; what tree species, how much soil volume, maintenance requirements, potential pavement breakup, leaf litter, vandalism and many other challenges are regular issues which we at GreenBlue Urban face every day. The London Borough of Hackney probably has the […]
Green Sports Stadiums are Leading the Way!
There is no better feeling than being a part of a significant sporting event, feeling the positive outburst of support amongst the crowd. The anticipation of intense competitions, the togetherness of the chanting spectators, live sporting coverage by various platforms and the nervousness and excitement from the athletes themselves as they walk onto the arena […]
8th September – A Date to Remember
Our 30-year celebrations came to a close with our final event held at London’s most technologically advanced venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which took place on the 8th of September, alongside industry colleagues and friends. The GreenBlue team welcomed guests with an extraordinary pitch view, with the famous Tottenham emblem of a gold cockerel standing tall above. […]
Greening Our School Infrastructure
As part of the Levelling up White Paper, government initiatives pledged £1bn to rebuild schools and set out to improve classroom capacity and targets achieved, with recent guidance for local authorities to support in and out of the classroom. The mission for education: for 90% of pupils to achieve the expected standard in reading, writing […]
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 […]
Help Green Our Planet!
Tree-planting has become the foundation of many environmental campaigns in recent years. The call to plant trees is everywhere, seen as a simple and effective way to help reduce the impact of carbon emissions and restore natural ecosystems. Managing our urban forests to help them retain, and more importantly increase their carbon storage potential can […]
What is an Urban Forest Master Plan?
Guest Post – Keith Sacre – Treeconomics Following on from our recent blog from Kenton Roger’s What is an Urban Forest, Keith discusses our current theme Master planning & Strategy to implement canopy cover for the long term. Urban trees are now widely recognised as essential urban infrastructure. The benefits that trees provide to people […]
Looking after SuDS, Is Legislation Enough?
On paper, the idea of sustainable drainage (SuDS) has so much going for it for developers. It helps meet the challenges of increasing levels of stormwater runoff in an attractive, environmentally friendly way. It also allows developers to optimise land use and create environments that people want to live and work in. So, what’s holding […]
How Bioretention Tree Pits can Manage Stormwater at Source
At GreenBlue Urban we have been continuously innovating to develop engineered solutions that not only provide amenity and biodiversity value, but add the critical element of sustainability to the process of integrating trees into the urban landscape. With a particular focus on SUDs / LID, stormwater practitioners across diverse practices have been considering the importance […]
Discussing the adverse impacts of Microplastics
Today plastic is a vital raw material, integral to the manufacture of everyday products. Ten years ago, the plastics industry accounted for more than 1.4 million jobs in over 62,000 companies across the European Union. However, their disposal on an ever-increasing scale results in significant global impacts on wildlife from marine environment pollution. Microplastics are […]
Clever Ways to Integrate Space
GreenBlue Urban had the opportunity to be a part of an award-winning estate regeneration scheme in Hackney, London, which has won the prestigious New London Architecture Mayor’s Prize and a RIBA National Award. Designed by Karakusevic Carson Architects and completed in 2017, bringing 50% of the 700 planned high quality homes to Hackney residents. The […]
The cost of soil compaction
It was a privilege to attend the Sustainable Soils Alliance event in Westminster this week focusing on the economics and valuation of soil. As our readers will be aware, the importance of soil cannot be underestimated. It is the fabric, the building block of our landscape and for our trees, a vital source for them […]
Pioneering Natural Green Infrastructure Solutions
It has been an immense pleasure to get to know members of the SUDs / LID community working tirelessly to deliver green infrastructure schemes across our towns and cities as part of the Water Resilient Cities project (2Seas Eu Interreg funded) and other GreenBlue Urban sponsored associations like the Green Infrastructure Foundation, the American Society […]
The Victorian Tree Legacy – How did it happen?
Many of our older cities are enjoying the benefit of large, old canopy volume trees – a wonderful legacy from a bygone era which is almost impossible to put a monetary value on. In terms of ecosystem benefit, these trees form the living green backbone of carbon sequestration, stormwater interception, urban cooling in our urban […]
Designing for Retail
There have been a number of publications reflecting the uplift that urban trees and high-quality landscape can achieve when it comes to areas specifically weighted toward retail and commercial use. The work that Treeconomics have undertaken with is a case in point. The growth of research which tries to quantify and attribute a qualitative value […]
GreenBlue Urban Host a Trial Tree Pit Event
On a very warm summers day – Independence Day to be precise, GreenBlue were pleased to invite contractors onsite to their Headquarters in Bodiam, East Sussex, the first to witness RootSpace 400 – the next generation Soil Cell solution. The day commenced with a tour of their onsite manufacturing facility by which both StrataCell and […]
