Greenkeeper: Enhancing Urban Green Infrastructure

Greenkeeper is an online tool and offline consultancy service developed through a collaborative partnership between Landscape Designers, Economic Analysts and Academics and supported by funding from Innovate UK, to aid understanding of the value ‚ social, economic and environmental - green infrastructure delivers to local communities.

Launched in July 2020 following two years of development, this new, easy to use tool has been designed to inform the dialogue and decisions made by anyone managing, designing or investing in green infrastructure. By bringing together academics leading research in this field, economic analysts delivering bespoke natural capital accounts and landscape designers with a view of the commercial marketplace across the UK, we sought to drive a unique collaboration that draws upon knowledge from within and out with the profession. The result is a marketable product that offers a tangible investment opportunity for UK PLC and leads the way in this field worldwide, as an exportable methodology. It uses leading innovation in health research and natural capital accounts to make urban greenspace valuation accessible.

As such we believe the online tool, and the offline consultancy service has an opportunity to transform the often formulaic, space-standards based approach to greenspace provision across the UK. Helping everyone better quantify the value to physical health and wellbeing in particular, alongside economic and environmental benefits, and understand which existing spaces are underperforming, and what is required from new provision means we can significantly enhance provision of better greenspaces across towns and cities UK-wide.