How to Engage Communities on the Infrastructure of the Future
On 26 June 2025, ECF delivered a half-day workshop exploring how communities can shape the future of Green-Blue-Grey Infrastructure.
Community engagement is crucial to the success of GBGI projects, but it is often overlooked and undervalued. The aim of the workshop was to bring community engagement to the forefront of people’s minds, and discuss best practices and strategies for engaging local residents and other key stakeholders in GBGI projects.
Lessons in Engagement
ECF began the workshop by sharing their insights and experiences of effectively engaging local communities across the UK. This included six important lessons to bear in mind when engaging on a project:
• Go out to people rather than expecting them to come to you.
• Be creative and fun in your engagement to attract a wider range of participants.
• Make an effort to identify and engage with groups who do not traditionally get involved in the consultation process.
• Remunerate people for their involvement to incentive broader participation.
• Embrace a variety of methodologies.
• Embrace technology, and use a combination of physical and digital tools when engaging.
Expert Speakers
Following ECF’s presentation, Charlotte Le Den (RECLAIM Network Plus) spoke about the pioneering research that the Network do, and discussed the collaborative and participatory methods used in co-designing and installing a green screen and green gate at a primary school in Guildford, which resulted in a significant decrease in air and noise pollution.
Max Farrell (LDN Collective) then presented a range of relevant case studies and projects that the LDN Collective are working on, such as Sibson Garden Community and the Royal Docks Eventscape.
Finally, Charlotte Glazier CMLI (UK Pocket Parks and InvestiNatures) drew on her 20 years of experience in Local Government and 30 years in landscape architecture to discuss how to effectively engage communities on urban greening projects.
Hypothetical Scenario Activity
Following a break, participants were presented with a hypothetical scenario in which a local authority is bringing forward proposals to introduce green, blue and grey infrastructure on a traffic-choked high street, and wants to engage with the local community to ensure they are informed and can have a meaningful say in the proposals.
Tables were tasked with devising an engagement strategy to address the various challenges of this scenario, such as the scheme being in a deprived area with a high level of car use. The importance of engaging early was emphasised, with engagement ideally beginning before any concrete proposals have been put forward, to ensure the community have a say in diagnosing the problem as well as finding the solution.
Each table presented their ideas back to the room, and it was great to hear from so many different perspectives on the best way to engage communities.
This work has been supported by the UKRI-funded RECLAIM Network Plus grant (EP/W034034/1).