Green Urbanist - Sustainable Placemaking, Planning and Urban Design
100+ episodes exploring climate action in cities and neighbourhoods.
This show provides actionable advice and case studies on:
- Sustainable urban design and placemaking principles.
- How to design cities and neighbourhoods for biodiversity net gain and wildlife.
- Climate adaptation: How to build resilience to climate change in cities.
- Net zero carbon masterplanning and architecture.
- Circular economy: How to minimise waste and emissions in new development.
- Transport: How to transition cities away to sustainable and active travel.
- Regenerative Design: Delivering positive benefits for the environment and communities.
Who is it for? Urban designers, planners, developers, architects, landscape architects, urban ecologists, engineers, transport professionals and urban citizens.
The Green Urbanist podcast is hosted by Ross O'Ceallaigh, an urban designer and sustainable placemaking consultant.
- Update frequency
- every 12 days
- Average duration
- 48 minutes
- Episodes
- 129
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
#104: Local Energy Solutions: Case Studies + Interactive Map
My guest is Duygu Kutluay, a campaigner at Beyond Fossil Fuels.
We discuss:
- Why local community projects need to be part of Europe’s energy transition away from fossil fuels.
- Beyond Fossil Fuels' new i…
#103: The 5 Types of Sustainable Change-Maker and Your Role in Systems Change
In this episode I explore the different roles that built environment professionals can play in leveraging systems change for sustainability. This is based on interviewing 122 guests on this podcast a…
#102: (WILD) Rewilding Urban Parks with Lost Species - Sean McCormack, Ealing Beaver Project
This episode is part of a 6-part series on Urban Rewilding.
My guest is Sean McCormack, Chair of Ealing Wildlife Group. Sean led the reintroduction of harvest mice and beavers into urban parks in Lon…
#101: Sacrifice Zones - Rebuild after disaster or return to nature?
This episode is a conversation with Jonathan Rosenbloom, Associate Dean at Albany Law School who has researched and written about sacrifice zones. He is also the Executive Director for the Sustainabl…
#100: Create Sustainable Change through your Work - Advice from 3 Experts
This is a recording of a live streamed podcast episode to celebrate episode 100 of the podcast. I was joined by three guests, who you might recognise from past episodes:
- Laura Baron, Head of Sustainab…
#99: Sustainability Career Advice + 3 Circular Economy Case Studies, with Valentina Petrone
My guest on this episode is Valentina Petrone, a circular economy expert based in New South Wales, Australia.
In this episode, Valentina gives career advice for those who want to transition from tradi…
#98: Circular Economy: Making Material Reuse Happen at Scale, with Material Index
This episode is a conversation with Morgan Lewis, Co-Founder and CEO at Material Index.
In the UK, 60% of all waste comes from the construction industry and only 2% of building components in the UK ar…
Course launch: Sustainability Essentials for Built Environment Professionals
Learn more and enrol now: Sustainability Essentials for Built Environment Professionals
My new course is now live and available for purchase. It's an introduction to urban sustainability with practica…
Intro to Regenerative Design (Mini-Course part 3/3)
Watch this training as a video for the best experience: Link to Video Training
This is part 3 of a 3-part mini-course about how to start bringing sustainability into your work as a built environment …
Net Zero Carbon Made Simple (Mini-Course part 2/3)
Watch this training as a video for the best experience: Link to Video Training
This is part 2 of a 3-part mini-course about how to start bringing sustainability into your work as a built environment …
Kickstart your Sustainability-focused Career (Mini-Course part 1/3)
This is part 1 of a 3-part mini-course coming out this week about how to start bringing sustainability into your work as a built environment professional. In this episode, I give advice for how to ap…
#97: Climate Adaptation Strategies for Urban Trees and Woodlands
In this episode I share some learnings from my recent research project about how climate change is likely to affect an urban nature reserve in London and climate adaptation recommendations for the re…
#96: Mainstreaming Passive Building Design in the USA, with Phius
My guest on this episode is Katrin Klingenberg, the Executive Director of Phius. Phius is a non-profit organization committed to decarbonizing the built environment by making high-performance passive…
#95: EcoResponsive Environments: Designing with Natural Systems
This episode is a conversation with Prachi Rampuria and Soham De, co-founders of an urban design practice called EcoResponsive Environments and are co-authors of a book by the same name. They joined …
#94: Stories of the Internet of Nature from 'The Nature of Our Cities' book, with Nadina Galle
Nadina Galle is an ecological engineer, National Geographic Explorer, science and nature writer, podcaster, and keynote speaker. She helps green professionals use emerging technologies to improve urb…
#93: An AI Tool to Streamline Biodiversity Net Gain, with Shashin Mishra (BNGAI)
This episode is all about technology to help us deliver Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG). My guest is Shashin Mishra, VP of EMEA for AiDash.
We explore how a new digital tool called BNGAI has been created …
#92: Chicago's Wild Mile and Other Urban Nature Innovations, with Doug Voigt (SOM)
Doug Voigt, a partner at SOM, discusses the Wild Mile project in Chicago and the importance of rewilding and restoring ecological systems in cities. The project aims to reclaim part of the Chicago Ri…
#91: A West African Perspective on Sustainable Architecture, with James Inedu-George (HTL Africa)
James is founding partner of HTL Africa, a research-driven architectural firm dedicated to addressing the specific challenges of West African environments. He joined me to discuss what we can learn f…
#90: Nature-Sensitive Urban Design, with Dr Thami Croeser
Dr Thami Croeser is an urban planner with a focus on bringing nature back into cities in practical ways, at large scale. He is a Research Fellow at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.
In this epi…
#89: A Planning System to Address the Climate and Housing Crises, with Shaun Spiers
Shaun Spiers is the Executive Director of the environmental think-tank, Green Alliance. In this episode we discuss how a stronger planning system in the UK can address the housing crisis and deliver …