Growing Green Cities is a regional planning, education, and research project on the diverse array of benefits that trees, forests and other landscapes provide for health, sustainability resilience, energy efficiency, and improving the social fabric of urban neighborhoods and other communities. It is designed to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration between people in diverse sectors, including local and state government, planning and design, public health, community development, health care and healing, education, energy and sustainability planning, stormwater management, and environmental and social justice. Based on years of work on watershed planning, stormwater management, energy efficiency and infrastructure in the region, this initiative was developed to highlight the benefits of trees and other green infrastructure for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, mitigating urban heat island risks, improving air quality and social cohesion, and many other ways these environmental resources are essential for our communities to thrive.
Since its formal inception in 2017, Growing Green Cities has presented two conferences in Orange County, NY, and a third is being planned in Westchester in 2020. Research and outreach are ongoing to identify potential project partners and resources to support this work and develop collaborations for demonstration, research, education, training, organizational development, and incorporating key elements of this work into state policy in New York State. Questions, suggestions and comments are welcome. After early fiscal sponsorship from the Orange County Citizens Foundation, Growing Green Cities is now a project of the Open Space Institute with strong support from the Institute for Sustainable Cities at Hunter College. Work to date would not have been possible without key support from many others, including the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the Wright-Ingraham Foundation for conferences in 2017 and 2019.
Contact for more information:
Simon Gruber
Fellow, Institute for Sustainable Cities at Hunter College
Director, Growing Green Cities
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