Brighton & Hove Building Green was established in 2006. We operate as a voluntary community network, and our aim is to bring nature into the city.

Nature is good for you, and we advise and promote the introduction of green features including green roofs and living walls into Brighton & Hove. The benefits are not only for wildlife – but for human health, wellbeing and happiness; cooler, more liveable cities; reducing surface water flooding and many others.

You can get involved! We need members and volunteers on a range of tasks – big, small, short term, long term. Drop us a line at info@building-green.org.uk.

What we do

Our members include green roof experts, Council officers, architects, nature conservationists, artists, academics, gardeners, landscapers and ordinary members of the public interested in doing their bit for a greener, more pleasant city. We want to encourage developers, green roof companies and others to join as well.

Brighton & Hove Building Green was founded by James Farrell, an environmentalist and local resident. As policy advisor to the Mayor of London he developed the first planning requirements for green roofs and walls in the UK, and was involved in supporting the green roof revolution in London.

Some of our achievements to date include:

• Worked with partners Living Roofs, Grass Roof Company and Brighton Permaculture Trust to establish the UK’s first training in DIY green roofing in 2007. These workshops are now delivered in London by The Human Nature Partnership.
• Successfully campaigning for the protection of the UK’s longest, oldest ‘green wall’ as a local wildlife site. Along Madeira Drive, this is the first such site in the country.
• Establishing the volunteer management of the Madeira Drive green wall and working to restore it to its former glory.
• Publishing a set of case studies to promote Brighton & Hove’s green roofs
• A range of talks and events to promote the city’s green infrastructure, including Brighton & Hove Eco Open Houses.
• Publishing a local history of Madeira Drive – the miracle mile.

Building Green in the media

Volunteers save plants for country’s oldest ‘green’ wall – Brighton Council 2018

Brighton’s Madeira Terraces Host to Over 100 Species Growing on Oldest & Longest Green Wall in Europe! – Brighton Journal 2017

Major Conservation Project on ‘Green Wall’ in Brighton – The Argus, February 2014

Living Roof Revolution across Brighton & Hove – The Argus , March 2013

Going Green feature on James Farrell, Chair Brighton & Hove Building Green – The Argus, June 2008

Flats to force residents to go green – The Argus, February 2008

New website for a greener Brighton (March 2008)

First UK green roof workshop a success (May 2008)

Paint the Town Green – The Argus, November 2008

Arena to include green roof – The Argus, April 2007

Green roofs go public in Architecture Week (June 2007)