Brighton and Hove World Green Building Council

In 2011 we were the first UK council to introduce guidance for developers on including food growing spaces when they build in our city. Our initiative recently won international recognition from the World Green Building Council.

Whether by adding rooftop gardens or including balcony containers, space for residents to grow their own food can be included in many developments. Since our guidance was adopted, there’s been a huge increase in the number of successful development proposals incorporating food growing facilities – soaring from 1% to 38% in just two years.

For example, a new community orchard was included as part of the development of The Keep, Brighton’s new historic archive centre near Falmer. During the project’s development, we worked closely with East Sussex County Council, and with two community organisations – Moulsecoomb Forest Garden and Brighton Permaculture Trust – to develop ideas and manage the project. The first trees were planted in December 2012 by local schoolchildren from nearby schools, and community groups are now managing and organising the site.

It’s great to see that more and more developers recognise that supporting food growing creates a better environment, and can give them a commercial edge too. The city’s success is a great credit to all those involved, including our partners Food Matters who worked with us on the guidance, and the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership who are doing so much to promote the role of local food.

Growing food locally helps reduce the city’s carbon footprint and the distance our food travels to reach our plate. But local growing also increases biodiversity and creates a greener city. We have a real issue with ‘food poverty’ within the city as well as global food shortages – so building our own food independence in the city is not only sustainable but essential.