Urban Greening Panelists
United Women in Faith environmental executive Ilka Vega talks with urban greening webinar panelists Binah Rushdan (top left) and Tanner Yess. (UM Insight Screenshot)
Sept. 18, 2025
“Urban greening” projects led by young people are easing adverse climate effects in U.S. cities as well as instilling character and leadership skills in teenagers and young adults.
Those were the messages from a Sept. 16 “Just Energy 4 All” webinar sponsored by United Women in Faith and attended by around 50 participants. Just Energy 4 All is part of UWFaith’s program for environmental justice.
Moderated by environmental executive Ilka Vega, the webinar featured Tanner Yess, chief youth and workforce officer for Groundwork USA in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Binah Rushdan, youth organizer with Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network. The presenters gave overviews of their respective organizations and examples of projects in which churches could participate as part of the UMC's mission to enhance caring for creation.
Yess described his agency as an umbrella organization for 21 local chapters around the United States. Overall, the chapters employ around 1,000 young people who plant urban forests, create parks and restore polluted sites known as “brownfields.”
UM Insight Screenshot
Yess said Groundwork chapters seek projects that address both environmental and economic issues. He said they often invest in lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color that frequently bear the brunt of climate change intensifying heat effects in cities.
“These neighborhoods didn’t come to look the way they do by accident and it’s not going to change by accident,” said Yess, referring to policies and practices that keep lower-income residents and people of color in less desirable living spaces.
“We try to bring equity as well as environmental improvement,” he said. “Imagine being a young person who can change the land you live on, changing the physical environment and the cultural environment. To be part of your neighborhood in this way is a powerful experience; social cohesion is a main determinant of resilience, being connected to your neighbors.”
Among his organization’s projects Yess cited:
- Groundwork Jacksonville, which is planting “cool roofs,” making home improvements, and creating “rain gardens” to help collect stormwater and reduce flooding;
- Groundwork New Orleans, which is creating rain gardens along rights-of-way and under interstate bridges to make stormwater parks that become sources of community activity;
- Groundwork Cincinnati, which is planting green roofs that are saving an estimated 86,000 gallons of water from running into drainage systems, further polluting the environment.
One of Groundwork’s most effective methods, said Yess, is establishing “micro forests,” planting multiple native species in small spaces, a practice that originated in Japan where cities have little open space. Micro-forests teach young workers about biodiversity and urban cooling, plus providing them with paid work to maintain the plots, he added.
Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Co-op was founded in 2010 to serve freshly grown produce in "food deserts" in the Michigan city. (UM Insight Screenshot)
Rushdan described how her organization has created a “farm to food” co-op in Detroit. Begun in 2010, the foundation now has a seven-acre “downtown farm” with 30 different varieties of food. It operates three greenhouses and has begun to keep bees to preserve species and pollinate its crops and other plants.
Among the slides Rushdan presented, she noted how urban farming can ease climate effects in cities:
- One acre of cement replaced with perennial plants helps to store carbon from urban pollution.
- One kilogram of homemade compost can save a tenth of a kilogram of carbon.
- Growing and purchasing local foods saves “huge amounts” of fossil fuels used to transport foods from other countries.
“Gardening is a good activity for young people,” said Rushdan. “It connects you with the food on your table; it gives you pride to know you contributed; it’s formative.”
She recommended that churches and individuals can start their own urban farms simply by growing one plant in a pot or any small space.
Yess agreed with Rushdan.
“The experience is the hook,” he said. “You’re creating advocacy based on what’s important to people – fresh food, shade, cooler temps, water. People will latch onto that.”
Yess noted the “federal landscape” is difficult for non-profit organizations today because so many government grants have been cut off. Nonetheless, he stressed that citizen groups, including churches, can have enormous power to affect their local environments, even to getting climate resilience policies adopted by cities, counties and states.
Cynthia B. Astle is Editor of United Methodist Insight, an online journal she founded in 2011 as a media channel to amplify news and views for, by and about marginalized and under-served United Methodists.