Hope
is a system you build

We work with people in custody to co-design and build raingarden parklets, gaining practical skills in nature-based urban infrastructure while contributingto a meaningful community asset. These builds create space for strong peer-to-peer learning, with participants teaching and supporting one another, developing confidence, problem-solving abilities, and a shared sense ofachievement.

The project shows that people in the prison system can contribute positively to some of society’s biggest challenges, with a visible, tangible impact on their communities.

The parklet also demonstrates a scalable, repeatable approach to creating greener, more climate-resilient public spaces – built by people rebuilding their lives.

Funded through the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, we recruited and supported Siva — a graduate who had been long-term unemployed – to take ona Net Zero Coordinator role within Civic. Siva identified practical actions that reduced carbon emissions and improved everyday sustainability across Civic’s operations.

This included driving down Scope 2 emissions by switching energy suppliers in Civic’s Glasgow, Leeds and London studios, saving approximately 15t CO₂e per year. She also strengthened the supply chain for raingarden parklets, identifying locally recycled plastic to reduce material-related emissions.

This project shows how supported and nurtured employment can build internal capacity, develop new skills, and create jobs in the green economy. It highlights how carbon savings and financial savings can sit side-by-side, demonstrating that climate action and thriving businesses can be two sides of the same coin.

These workshops introduce young people from urban, deprived — not talent-deprived — areas to sponge city and 20-minute neighbourhood principles, showing how they can help make neighbourhoods greener, safer, and more resilient to flooding and climate change. Through hands-on activities and co-designed projects, participants gain practical climate knowledge while developing confidence, creativity, and problem-solving skills.

The project also draws on feminist town-planning principles, emphasising safety, care, accessibility, and the realities of everyday life, helping participants understand how urban design can better serve everyone. Together, these approaches show how community-led action can contribute to positive environmental change.

This ongoing feasibility study examines how a connected Green Corridor along Glasgow’s Virginia Street and Virginia Court could strengthen bio diversity, manage flood risk, and encourage active travel and increased footfall as part of wider city-centre regeneration. The process brings together local people, organisations, and planners to co-design nature-based concepts that prioritise social justice, wellbeing, and everyday accessibility.

The findings are shaping opportunities for a Living Lab approach and generating practical models that can be scaled or adapted across Glasgow and beyond.