Urban Rewilding/Greening/Carbon Sequestration. Cities should aim to utilize their existing available resources as carbon sinks: its forested areas and other tree canopy, grasslands, salt marshes, wetlands, peatlands, agricultural land, sea meadows, etc. And to create more areas capable of removing carbon and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere – greenways, street trees, green roofs and walls, reclaimed brownfields, vertical farms, and more.
1. Urban Rewilding. UR looks to restore natural processes and to reintroduce nature on a city scale. UR has a wide range of benefits, from improving health to helping to tackle the biodiversity and climate crises. “Rewilding Cities: Why It’s Needed and How You Can Help” www.mossy.earth/rewilding-knowledge/rewilding-cities . “Here Are Some Ways the World’s Cities Are Rewilding” www.rewildingmag.com 6/9/22.
2. Carbon Sequestration. “Carbon Capture Gardens: A Nature-based Solution For Managing Urban Brownfield Soils” www.thenatureofcities.com 2/7/16. “Estimating Carbon Storage In Urban Forests of New York City” www.naturalareasnyc.org 10/5/21. “Carbon Sequestration and Storage Potential of Urban Green in Residential Yards” (a case study in Helsinki) www.sciencedirect.com . “Turning Urban Wastelands into Carbon Capture Gardens” (UK) www.sciencedaily.com 12/13/16. “Grasslands More Reliable Carbon Sink Than Trees” www.ucdavis.edu. “Top 5 Most Efficient Ecosystems For Carbon Storage” (tundra, seagrass meadows, mangrove forests, salt marshes, and tropical forests) www.sdu.dk 10/29/18.
3. Trees. Identify areas where your city’s tree canopy can be expanded. “Expand Your City’s Tree Canopy” www.c40knowledgehub.org . “Expand Tree Canopy Cover” www.sustainablecode.org . “U.S. Forest Service Urban and Community Forest Program” www.fs.usda.gov . Arbor Day Foundation’s “Tree City USA” program www.arborday.org/programs/treecityusa/ . Seattle’s “Trees For Neighborhoods” program. www.seattle.gov/trees/planting-and-care/trees-for-neighborhoods . “Sarasota Wants Residents to Plant More Trees” www.usf.edu . “Our City Forest Planting the Future” (San Jose CA) www.ourcityforest.org . “City Trees and Soil Are Sucking More Carbon” www.bu.edu . Biochar. The City of Stockholm has started to use its park and garden waste (any wood waste will do) to produce biochar via pyrolysis (see this website’s page on Emerging & Underutilized Technologies). The biochar is then applied to urban growing media and structural soils for tree plantings, which results in higher quality soil with greater levels of carbon sequestration. “Planting Urban Trees With Biochar” www.biochar-journal.org/en/ct/77 City governments may be able to generate revenue from planting trees by selling credits (carbon offsets) to buyers seeking to offset their own carbon emissions. This may (may!) also be able to be extended to a city’s maintaining forests, grasslands, and other natural areas able to sequester carbon. Check out: www.carboncredits.com/urban-forest-carbon-credits/, www.cityforestcredits.org/carbon-credits/ , “King County Urban Forest Preservation Project” and “Cities Net $1 Million From Carbon Credit” www.axios.com 4/4/22. “Granite City Adds More Trees and Will Be Able to Sell the Carbon Credits” (St. Louis area) www.news.stlpublicradio.org 5/27/22. “Dallas Renews Plans to Look Into Selling Carbon Credits from the Trinity Forest” www.dallasnews.com 8/1/22.
4. Regenerative Soil Management. If agriculture is a prominent activity in your city or region, then farm practices involving tilling of the soil, monoculture crop practices, synthetic fertilizers, and livestock feedlots are all contributing to your community’s being part of the carbon problem, rather than part of the solution. “What Are Regenerative Farming Practices?” www.motherearthnews.com “Soil & Land” www.organiclandcare.ca/resources_soil .
5. Golf Course Management. Cities owning and managing public golf courses should become familiar with sustainable golf course management techniques. “The Role of Golf Courses in Carbon Sequestration” www.eigca.org 2/16/21 . “Sustainable Golf Course Management” www.greenbusinessbureau.com 12/29/21. “How to Make Golf Courses More Sustainable and Climate Resilient” www.golfindustrynetwork.ca .
6. Buildings as Carbon Sinks. Can a city’s buildings be transformed from net-plus-carbon to climate-neutral, or even carbon negative? “Technology That Could Turn Buildings into Climate Fighting Tools” www.bloomberg.com 11/11/21. This article describes the Urban Sequoia concept, developed by architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). “A Blueprint for Sustainable Architecture” www.inhabitat.com . “Buildings Must Become the Earth’s Sixth Carbon Sink” www.aia.org Biocrete. Uses biochar added to the concrete mix to produce “a Carbon Negative Concrete” (in Norway) www.snohetta.com and www.biocrete.no .
