Urban Farming

Chicago's Our Roots Chicago initiative has planted tens of thousands of trees, but its request-based planting system, cultural distrust, and maintenance failures have left the city's most tree-deprived census tracts still significantly underserved.

Balcony solar (balkonkraftwerk)—affordable, plug-in solar panels that can be installed without an electrician—has been adopted by over one million German households, particularly renters previously excluded from rooftop solar, following policy changes that simplified registration and made landlord approval mandatory.

A building material made of hemp fibers, water, and clay or lime is a sustainable alternative to other options like concrete. Dubbed hempcrete, the product has many benefits including a very low carbon footprint, active sequestration of carbon dioxide, and using a sustainable, fast-growing crop as its base.

An urban sustainable food system project at the Ohio State University enabled 10 newly established farmers to start microfarms, which produce crops year-round, at only the cost of their time and labor. The individuals formed a cooperative so they can sell to larger institutional buyers together, while the cooperative handles marketing and finding buyers. With the potential to make up to $30,000 a year, the program aims to provide economic options to city residents, including formerly incarcerated individuals. The coop needs to find extended funding, but 6 microfarms were already built with 4 more planned.

After California passed new regulations mandating that the dairy industry needs to mitigate the amount of methane emissions produced from cows, some farms like Airoso Dairy are adopting new technologies to do the job. The farm works with energy companies to use a digester that converts the cow’s manure into biofuel. While the initial investment in the technology can be expensive, this conversion of fuel has also added a new revenue stream for the farm.

Caltrain's $2.4 billion electrification of 51 miles of track replaced diesel trains with faster electric ones, resulting in ridership increases (it doubled on weekends) and shorter trips. This also led to an 89% reduction in riders' exposure to toxic pollution and an estimated 250,000 metric tons of annual carbon emissions reductions.

The Connecticut Green Bank's Solar MAP+ program acts as a "public developer" that bundles, finances, and directly develops solar projects for schools and municipalities that private developers avoid. To date, they've installed nearly 54 megawatts of solar, programmed to save $57 million in energy costs.

CleanAIRE NC, an organization that trains residents to collect and share air quality data, uses AirKeeper Dashboard—an interactive mapping tool that displays real-time data from sensors across the state—to help North Carolina communities track and understand local air pollution and advocate for cleaner, healthier air.

Multiple organizations in Philadelphia are joining forces, such as The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and the new Office of Clean and Green, to transform the city’s several thousand vacant lots into green spaces. Even Temple University has executed a new "Verdant Temple" master plan, creating specific green spaces for the public. A University of Pennsylvania study found a 29% reduction in gun violence in neighborhoods where vacant lots were cleaned and restored, and the city is investing nearly $20 million annually in these efforts.

The city of Amsterdam funded a blue-green roofs program to reduce both flooding and the urban heat island effect. The water collection system stores and releases rainwater, the variety of indigenous plants increase biodiversity, and the connected digital network allows them all to be controlled remotely.