Creating happier, healthier, more liveable cities

Bioregional's ‘One Planet Cities’ project, funded by the KR Foundation has brought together councils, organisations, businesses, schools and community groups in Canada, Denmark, South Africa and the UK to make their cities better places to live.

These organisations have co-created locally owned sustainability action plans to generate a route map towards a sustainable future.

Bioregional’s One Planet Living framework was used to structure the plans. These ten simple principles – from health and happiness and sustainable food to zero carbon energy – provide a common language to talk about sustainability and to drive change.

The project has created an international network of knowledge-sharing designed to accelerate change towards happy and prosperous lives for all within the limits of our one planet.

The One Planet Cities

In each city, the local authority or a citizen-led coalition has worked with a lead partner to invite organisations to come together to create a One Planet Living action plan.

• Oxfordshire, UK: Oxfordshire County Council was the first local authority to sign up, and is working alongside Bioregional Oxfordshire. All five district and city councils within Oxfordshire have participated in the process.
  
• Saanich, Canada: One Earth, a not-for-profit 'think and do' tank in Vancouver is working with the District of Saanich in British Columbia, Canada.
• Durban, South Africa: Bioregional South Africa is collaborating with a citizen-led coalition in the city to bring together local partners.
• Elsinore, Denmark: This municipality in Denmark is supported by Green Transition Denmark.

Tarusa, Russia has also joined the project supported by the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office through a grant for “Catalysing growth for sustainable communities through UK-Russian collaboration”. The lead partner is Planet 2030, which will lead the process of creating a One Planet Action Plan for the city.

Local action plans owned by local people

With 257 people attending workshops to define these action plans, the process drew on expertise from a wide range of people and organisations to make these plans work for that location. As well as shaping the city-wide action plan, some of the local contributors have also developed their own sustainability action plans to support the wider vision.

Bioregional has trained 93 ‘One Planet Integrators’ across the locations – these are sustainability champions who will support the development of the city and stakeholder action plans.

Where next?

Having demonstrated what One Planet Living can achieve in a place-based approach, the KR Foundation has committed additional funding to the project for 18 months from July 2019. This means we can continue to support our existing locations and scale the approach through established city networks.