Bringing Londons Leaders Together, to Shape a more Liveable Future
Updated: 1 day ago
120 attendees, 90 organisations, and one misty London backdrop. This October, Wild Cities invited business leaders and government to Sky Garden, to answer a shared question: "How can we move from fragmented efforts towards coordinated, long-term investment in urban nature?"
We explored the growing risks of climate change and nature loss, uncovered the stories of those already demonstrating what's possible, and how collective action can help build a greener, healthier and more resilient London.
Key takeaways from the morning
Nature is essential urban infrastructure.
Urban nature plays a vital role in managing flood risk and rising temperatures, supporting public health, strengthening biodiversity and creating more liveable places. Investing in nature is increasingly central to London's long-term resilience and prosperity.
The case for investment is stronger than ever.
The risks associated with climate change and nature loss are shared across businesses, property owners, insurers, government and communities. Investing in urban nature is both a response to these growing pressures and an opportunity to create long-term environmental, social and economic value.
The solutions are already emerging.
Across London, organisations are demonstrating what's possible through nature-positive development, innovative placemaking and community-led restoration. The opportunity now is to connect these efforts and enable them to have greater collective impact and sustained support.
Collaboration is the key to scaling impact.
No single sector can deliver urban nature recovery alone. Lasting change requires businesses, landowners, investors, scientists, policymakers and communities to bring together their complementary resources, expertise and influence. The next step is turning ambition into action.
The morning reinforced the importance of moving beyond individual projects towards shared priorities, coordinated resources and long-term stewardship.
From conversation to collective action
The event marked an important milestone in the development of Wild Cities and its vision for a 14-mile connected nature corridor across Haringey, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Newham.
Building on the conversations at Sky Garden, Wild Cities is developing a cross-sector Coalition to connect the land, capital, expertise and community capacity needed to accelerate nature recovery across London. The ambition is not simply to support more individual projects, but to develop a coordinated approach that can deliver lasting benefits for biodiversity, climate resilience, health and the communities who live and work across the corridor.
How it works
Wild Cities provides the connective infrastructure linking resource partners with on-the-ground opportunities through three core functions:
Convene partners and align priorities
Bring organisations together around shared priorities, aggregate demand and identify where collective action can deliver greater impact.
Develop and mobilise an investable pipeline
Turn shared priorities into viable, place-based opportunities, connecting projects with the funding, expertise or support needed to deliver them.
Measure impact and share learning
Build the evidence of what works, strengthen accountability and use insights to inform future investment and scale up nature recovery.
A 90-day sprint to co-design the Wild Cities Coalition
Wild Cities is inviting organisations across all three sectors to help shape a collaborative approach to accelerating nature recovery across Haringey, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Newham.
Register your interest and explore how your organisation could contribute. Nothing else required at this stage, just your curiosity.
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