The London Environmental Network (LEN) is looking to make the Forest City even greener with the help of national non-profit Green Communities Canada.
Living Cities Canada, an initiative co-ordinated by Green Communities Canada, works to “bolster local support and capacity for green infrastructure in cities across the country,” including London.
Working with the LEN, the national non-profit is working through the initiative to have London become a “Living City” — a place with equitable, abundant and thriving green infrastructure.
“Green infrastructure is a way to make urban areas work more like natural systems,” explained Christine Mettler, Living Cities program manager. “Nature offers a whole bunch of services and when we build our cities, and we lose natural vegetation, and we harden surfaces and lose natural soils, we lose a lot of those services.
“Green infrastructure is a way to both protect the nature that already exists and then reintroduce nature into our cityscapes.”
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Recently, the Living Cities project team released its Pathways to Living Cities Framework, documenting how cities around the world are advancing green infrastructure.
Pathways are also being developed for Lethbridge, Alta.., Hamilton, Dieppe, N.B., and Saint John, N.B.
“We’re working in five different communities across the country and working closely with our local partners,” Mettler said.
“We’re just in the process right now of putting things together and then making some recommendations for how the city can kind of continue the good work of protecting what we got, and then also, when we develop and when we redevelop, really thinking about how we can use nature wisely to make our communities better and offer more services in a way that’s actually a lot more cost-effective than cement, big pipes and ripping up our streets as well.”
Marianne Griffith, executive director for LEN, said Living Cities Canada is allowing the network to “build upon this work by identifying ways London can do more to support green infrastructure.”
“We are looking forward to deepening this work by building awareness and involving community members in on-the-ground green infrastructure projects,” Griffith said.
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