Community-led Climate Adaptation Plans

Edible Estates worked over five months in 2025 to facilitate community-led climate adaptation planning in four council estates in Edinburgh – Wester Hailes & the Calders, Oxgangs, Hutchison, and Lochend.

The plans were created through participative research methods, engaging over 180 residents and partnering with twenty community organisations across the four communities. The project also recruited and trained eleven local residents as community researchers.

Each community that Edible Estates engaged with had different albeit overlapping results, however, some common themes across the estates were:

• Greenspaces: local residents value the biodiversity, greenspace and waterways around them.  Rather than more greenspace, participants favoured enhancement of existing greenspace, including better maintenance.

• Community resilience: participants were aware of the importance of community ties and resources in the face of a changing climate. Depending on the location, participants emphasised the protection and better use of existing community centres, or the creation of community spaces which are currently lacking.

• The desire for more information was raised; participants wanted to learn more about conserving waterways and restoring nature, about reducing energy bills and protecting their homes from extreme weather, about the climate action going on around them already, and about climate actions that they can take in their own lives such as recycling.

There is enthusiasm from participants to go further with community-led climate adaptation, in particular developing their community visions into action plans in collaboration with the Council and other stakeholders.