"Just green enough"​ and other tools to combat green gentrification (2024)

Several years ago my interest was piqued upon hearing the term “green gentrification." Little did I know that my quick, deep dive into uncovering the definition would shift, and disturb, my professional work and sense of place forever.

Green gentrification describes inequities caused by environmental improvement projects. Greening can increase local property values, thereby attracting wealthier buyers and displacing existing, lower-income individuals and families.

The power of a tree

A simple example of the effects of green gentrification can be seen through the value we place on one of our most basic natural assets: trees.

• Healthy, mature trees add an average of 10% to a property's value (US Forest Service)
• Homes with street trees sold for an average of $7,130 more in Portland, OR (NIST)

An effect called "art washing" exploits affordable public art to increase values similarly. 

Most environmental groups aren't aiming to improve investment opportunities for the wealthy (I hope), but rather bring natural assets to underserved communities, like environmental justice areas.

Although distressed by the gentrification I'm witnessing in the Hudson Valley and around the country, I am hopeful that the major investments needed for climate action will be an opportunity to correct our past errors. To work toward greater equity, not greater disparity.

Why do we care?

Environmental organizations effect and are affected by social inequities like green gentrification in two key ways.

1. Our environmental improvement work may spur gentrification, leading to more inequality.
2. We cannot achieve true and representative community engagement and planning when resident's basic needs, like housing, aren't being met.

A path forward

We should be improving and enriching our communities with nature and art, but not at the expense of our existing and most-vulnerable residents.

Solutions exist. Local governments can protect their residents from green gentrification and art washing by:

1. passing rent control and tax disincentives to limit wealth amassing by the few (see examples in Keeping the Neighborhood Affordable PDF),
2. increasing affordable housing stock (econ 101: increase supply to lower price), and
3. working with a Community Land Trust to promote home ownership and conserve land in affordability forever.

Equity tools for climate and environmental planning professionals

Learning more about the negative societal impacts of environmental planning, like green gentrification, has rocked me to my core. It's cheesy, but I really do believe that every challenge is an opportunity -that's why I can work on climate change every day. Bringing social equity into our conversation on climate action will lead us to more interesting and inclusive solutions. Here are some tools and strategies that I've found helpful.

• Ramp up engagement and scale projects to your community. Be thoughtful about how and where we green (like prioritizing areas near protected public housing), and let the community lead. "Just green enough" is a strategy that "focuses explicitly on social justice and environmental goals as defined by local communities, those people who have been most negatively affected... with the goal of keeping those people in place to enjoy any environmental improvements" and can be explored more in the bookJust Green Enoughand journal article Urban green space, public health, and environmental justice: The challenge of making cities ‘just green enough' (PDF). The Audobon Center at Debs Park's Greening in Place: Protecting Communities from Displacement toolkit (PDF) provides "an assessment of the displacement risks associated with green investment, a framework for equitable green development, several case studies, and a range of policies and strategies that can be used in partnership with the affected communities."
• Address climate equity. It's not a coincidence that socially vulnerable populations are often found in flood plains and treeless neighborhoods. "In astudy of 108 urban areas nationwide, the formerly redlined neighborhoods of nearly every city studied were hotter than the non-redlined neighborhoods, some by nearly 13 degrees" according to this NPR article. Groundwork Hudson Valley used data and mapping to visualize how our legacy of racist housing policies led to areas of lower tree canopy and higher heat exposure in the City of Yonkers, NY in their Climate Safe Neighborhoods program. Urban Systems Lab's Environmental Justice of Urban Flood Risk and Green Infrastructure Solutions"aims to better understand the environmental justice impacts of climate change related flooding on minority and low-income communities and assess social equity in green infrastructure planning for reducing urban flood risks."
• Localize opportunities for green jobs. What blue and white collar jobs are created by environmental planning and projects and who is getting hired? PUSH Buffalo, focused on affordable housing in the City of Buffalo, NY, is fostering a local, green economy through their PUSH Blue Program. Push BLUE works across the value chain for installing green infrastructure in the City to mitigate local flooding and heat stress. They help workers get certified, hire certified installers for their affordable housing properties, and advocate that the City invest in green infrastructure and require companies to hire certified workers.
• Design community planning and events for accessibility. There are practical tools to make a community process more accessible to a diversity of residents. The Water Resources Institute at Cornell University offers a roundup of best practices in their Inclusive Planning for Community Resilience webpage, including providing transportation, food, child care and pay to bring local and indigenous knowledge to the table.
• Measure what matters. We all know the saying "you manage what you measure," but finding quantitative metrics for social equity is easier said than done. The Nature Conservancy's Whole Measures for Urban Conservation offers a holistic framework for estimating the true value of a greening project, and process. The Neighborhoods at Risk tool from Headwater Economics offers key vulnerability metrics on any community or county in the nation.

Thank you for reading this, and please share what you're learning as we work to improve our landscapes while expanding our mindsets.