🧵 So disappointed to see Newcastle's "Urban Garden", partnered with @BrewDog, yesterday.
An excellent opportunity to put sustainability into practice, and to educate people on the climate, ruined through a series of avoidable, bad decisions 👇
Claiming to have "sustainability" at it's core, @NE1BID's #UrbanGarden is partnered with carbon negative @BrewDog, and promotes the planting of trees in Brewdog's forest.
Excellent 👏 But a series of harmful decisions have been made for the "garden" itself.
Decision 1⃣
Installing masses of @Easigrass plastic grass, which:
⚠️ Supports demand for fossil fuels
🔥 Causes carbon emissions through production
🌍 Will not degrade for centuries
👨👩👧👦 Implies that fake grass is sustainable
Decision 2⃣
Installing a fake @Easigrass green wall, which:
👆 See all of above, and...
🌱 Removes option of having a real, sensory green wall
🐛 Loses an opportunity to support urban invertebrates with real plants
Decision 3⃣
Bedding any real plants in peat based @BetterGrowing compost, which:
💦 Drains and degrades peat bogs, vital habitats to battle impacts of climate change
🔥 Causes release of around 38 tonnes of carbon per ha
🦕 Takes 1000 years to reform just one meter
#PeatFree
Decision4⃣
Family activities about the planet, brill 👍 However,
🦎 It's a recurring misconception that children are uninterested in British wildlife, and climate education, the activities unfortunately reflect this (not through the fault of the provider).
The promotion of Urban Garden as sustainable is not only deeply inaccurate, it's patronising in assuming such decisions are good enough for the city (and the planet).
Plastic greenery and beer won't wash away the #ClimateCrisis, but a well-informed city could be a big help.
Crikey. Thank you to those who are supporting this, and in turn - hopefully - positive steps for future projects.
I'd be sincerely interested to speak with @NE1BID / @BrewDog about ways to integrate sustainability into future projects.
The response to this has been unexpectedly (but understandably) crackers. I think (@BrewDog and @NE1BID) it might be time to find out what’s happened at Urban Garden, and to reassure the hundreds of people who’ve responded how better choices will be made in the future..?
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