Green Urbanist - Placemaking in the Climate Crisis

Nadina is an ecological engineer, technologist, and entrepreneur dedicated to working with urban ecologists and planners to apply today’s technology to improve urban ecosystems for future generations of city dwellers. She also runs an excellent podcast called the Internet of Nature, which I highly recommend. In this episode we talk about: What is the Internet of Nature How to use technology to ens...

Dr Brian O'Ceallaigh is a clinical psychologist working for the national health service in England and he also happens to be my brother. I sat down with him to discuss how climate anxiety and climate despair are perfectly healthy responses to the crisis we are facing and how you can manage these feelings through positive action, acceptance and mindfulness practice. We also discuss some of the...

This episode is a conversation with Alice Schmidt. Alice is an advisor, advocate and author on global sustainability & social transformation. Amongst other things, she is an adviser to organisations like the European Commission and Extinction Rebellion and lectures at Vienna University. She is the author of a new book, The Sustainability Puzzle, which explores how systems thinking, circularity...

This is the first episode in an ongoing series exploring the work of London National Park City Rangers. I go 'in the field' to to meet Rangers Luke Newcombe and Charles Linton in Wood Green, North London, to see some urban greening interventions first hand: Green public space at Wood Green Library Green roofs The borough's first Parklet/Pocket Park Nature Reserve Luke also gives adv...

An introduction to the concept of Systems Thinking and how it is essential for understanding and taking action on climate change.  This episode is inspired by the book Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows. It covers: What is Systems Thinking? How to get started thinking in systems System structure - stocks, flows and loops Leverage points for changing systems Follow the Green Urbanist: https://t...

Today's episode is a conversation with Arthur Kay, Founder and CEO of Skyroom and Bio Bean, and Chair of the Key Workers Homes Fund. Skyroom is an award-winning technology and urban development company which delivers precision-manufactured homes in the airspace above existing buildings. Their mission is to improve the lives of key workers by delivering affordable, sustainable, beautiful homes...

Jake is Sustainable Design Advisor at Hawkins\Brown where he led the development of the free open-source Hawkins Brown Emissions Reduction Tool, also referred to as H\B:ERT, which is a whole life carbon calculation tool. Jake works across all project stages; developing and reviewing key sustainability strategies and targets. His work is at the boundary between architecture and engineering; working...

Today's episode is a conversation with Jonny McKenna and Dhruv Sookhoo of Metropolitan Workshop, a leading practice of architects and urban designers based in London and Dublin. Jonny McKenna is Director of their Dublin office, an architect and urban designer and has played a lead role in masterplanning and residential projects since joining Metropolitan Workshop in 2006. Dhruv Sookhoo is Hea...

Today's episode is a conversation with Virginia Cinquemani. Virginia is the founder and director of Green Gorilla Consultants, a unique training and coaching company focusing exclusively on empowering sustainability professionals to become the most confident and assertive version of themselves, and to successfully accomplish their sustainability projects even when their stakeholders think sus...

 Liza is a business consultant, social innovator and advocate for regenerative economy. She's a member of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership network and has extensive experience working in several industries and countries as project manager and consultant. Today she runs her own business called 4D Sustainability helping small and medium businesses on their sustainability jo...

James grows urban forests around the UK with his company Wild Urban Spaces and with rewilding organisation SUGi. He is an expert in the use of the Miyawaki Method of afforestation, which is a Japanese approach to rapidly creating healthy, native forest ecosystems, and can be applied to small sites in urban contexts.  In this episode we discuss: The Miyawaki Method The Forest of Thanks, a Miyawaki...

In today's episode we are asking, are tall buildings sustainable? It is often argued that because of their density, tall buildings are essential for sustainable cities to support public transport, walking, cycling and thriving communities. However, once you start looking into it, it is far more complicated than that. In this episode, tall buildings are analysed based on their environmental, s...

This episode pulls heavily from two excellent books, The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells and  The Future We Choose by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac. I look at the cognitive biases that prevent us from thinking logically and honestly about climate change, and therefore limit our actions, as presented in The Uninhabitable Earth . Following this I discuss the three "mindse...

Welcome to the Green Urbanist, the podcast for urbanists fighting climate change. I'm Ross. The premise of this episode is that the way we currently produce most of our meat, using factory farms and feedlots, is a disaster from an environmental point of view and contributes a small but significant amount to global greenhouse gas emissions. However, there is a potential solution to this proble...

Today's episode is a collaboration with the Human City podcast. The Human City is a podcast hosted by Stig Terrebonne that focuses on making cities, well, more human. Making people healthier, happier and facilitating community through urbanism. In this episode Stig has joined me to share his top lessons learned from interviewing some of the leading urbanists in the USA. We cover some really i...

Salem is a Sustainability Engineer who has worked on projects in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. Originally from Amman Jordan, he moved to England to study civil and environmental engineering, and has spent the last 6 years working on exciting international projects. Salem is a good friend of mine, we used to work together and he was probably one of the first people I met when I...

This is a mini-episode covering one very interesting topic: Increased atmospheric carbon is making food grow with less nutrients. I cover the research and some of the implications for global health. This is a fascinating story I wanted to share but couldn't fit it into a larger episode. So here it is in a short podcast bite. Let me know what you think of this shorter format on social media: h...

Justin Hunt is a Canadian engineer and entrepreneur, and CEO of an exciting company called Blaise Transit. Blaise is an AI-based software platform that allows transit operators to run on-demand bus services using their existing vehicles. What does that mean? Well essentially, instead of running a traditional bus route on a fixed line, passengers can open a smartphone app and request to picked up....

Today we are taking a step outside cities to explore reforestation and rewilding in a conversation with biologist Tiago de Zoeten. Tiago is a conservation biologist at Mossy Earth, a social enterprise on a mission to restore nature and fight climate change. He studied biology at the University of Edinburgh and Biostatistics at UCM in Madrid and has research experience in ecology and conservation g...

This episode provides a summary of the main proposals in the UK government White Paper, Planning for the Future , which sets out a new planning system for England. I discuss the move away from a discretionary planning system to one based on zoning, how the new system intends to promote design quality and delivering more housing and the changing role of technology in planning. Read the full White P...

This episode is a conversation with Niall McEvoy. Niall is Business Development Manager at Scotscape, a leading green infrastructure and living wall provider. He is an educator and speaker with expertise in urban greening, horticulture and the science behind how plants and trees can improve our cities. Niall leads training courses on the design, construction and maintenance of living walls, provid...

Welcome to the Green Urbanist Podcast. My name is Ross and this podcast is about how urbanists of all kinds can step up the climate emergency. This episode is Part 2 in a series on Climate Change is affecting and reshaping our cities. The topic is sea level rise and some of the points covered include: Why the sea level is rising more in some cities, and dropping in others. How melting ice caps shi...

Welcome to the Green Urbanist Podcast, hosted by Ross O'Ceallaigh. This podcast is all about how we can design and manage cities to reduce our carbon emissions, adapt to the climate emergency and live happier, healthier lives. Today's episode is a conversation with Conrad Richardson. Conrad is a mobility and climate activist with an international academic and professional background in u...

Today's episode is Part 1 of a series about how climate change is affecting our cities. There are four episodes in this series, coming out over the coming months, with a different topic for each. Today's topic is heat and I cover the following issues: What is "Degrees Warming"? Extreme heat / heatwaves (Case study: Paris) Water shortages (Case studies: Nigeria and England) Corr...

Welcome to the Green Urbanist. The podcast for urbanists fighting climate change. I'm Ross. Today's episode is an interview with Giulia Mori. Giulia is a Senior Energy and Sustainability Consultant with Tuffin Ferraby Taylor in London. One of her areas of expertise is wellbeing in the built environment. The focus of our conversation is how architecture and urban design affects our health...