Hwyl fawr!

We’ve come to the end of our UPE trip to Cardiff. I have thoroughly enjoyed diving into the depths of Cardiff’s journey to become a One Planet City and I certainly will be keeping up to date with its progress in the coming years. Throughout this blog, we have discussed some of the most distressing…

Got the SuDS

Image: Rob Melen/WalesOnline The metabolism of water is an important concept within Cardiff’s plans to become a sustainable city, with the council proposing several new, ‘green’ methods for rainwater catchment and treatment. Swyngedouw (2002) defines urban sustainability as “the capacities individuals and social groups have in producing the socio-environmental conditions of which they are part…

I’ll have what they’re having (too)

In a continuation of my previous blog “I’ll have what they’re having”, I want to discuss further the food inequalities in Cardiff, particularly in relation to children. There are over 160,000 children in Wales who are becoming increasingly unable to afford a healthy diet, and over 76,000 eligible for free school meals. A study carried…

There’s nothing pointless about a circular economy

In the discipline of UPE, the waste that a city produces and how it is processed and disposed of is an important indicator of its attitude toward environmental conservation at both an individual and a governmental scale. For example, the percentage of waste that is recycled can represent the waste footprint of a city. Furthermore,…

I’ll have what they’re having

Despite predictions for economic growth in Cardiff, the city still faces significant food insecurity which has only been exacerbated by COVID-19. Over the past years, both private and government-led organisations have attempted to tackle the problem, with limited success thus far. However, viewing food accessibility and inequality through a UPE lens is valuable for highlighting…

One Planet Cardiff

Today I will be continuing to discuss Cardiff’s mission to become a ‘Green’ city, focusing on the ‘One Planet Cardiff’ (OPC) report of 2020. This outlines Cardiff Council’s aim to become a carbon neutral city by 2030 (Cardiff Council, 2020). The report covers many of the attributes that contribute to an ‘ideal’ sustainable city, such…

A splash of green

Despite the apparent juxtaposition between the concept of green infrastructure (GI) and Cardiff’s history as the world’s most successful coal exporter, the city has somewhat of a ‘green’ reputation . It has generally been ranked highly for recycling, sustainability, and renewable energy usage in environmental studies, and in recent years, the Welsh government has become…

Cardiff: The fortified city on the River Taff.

Image: ‘Cardiff Bay’ by L. Hatherall The city of Cardiff – known in Welsh as Caerdydd – takes its name from Caer, meaning ‘fort’, and taf, after the River Taff that runs through it. This is the first evidence of the city’s many fusions of human civilisation and nature. One could even consider this a…