Greening the City offers extensive research services and over ten years of experience.  These include:

Qualitative methods: Includes interviews, focus groups, phenomenological approaches, and observation. This is helpful when you want to know why people feel the way they do, or to explain research outcomes. It is particularly helpful when dealing with community outreach, vulnerable populations, or complex outcomes like well-being and sense of place.

Quantitative methods: Includes survey design, piloting, execution, and analysis. Surveys and statistical analysis are helpful to explain what is going on in research outcomes, and to test smaller findings in a larger population or sample.

Interdisciplinary approach: Greening the City uses an interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving. This is helpful when problems exist at multiple scales (i.e. individual, local, and regional), complex, and cover expertise across multiple expertise areas. Leading experts have called for the need for interdisciplinary and creative approaches to solve ‘wicked’ problems such as climate change, obesity, and health in buildings that cannot be explained from one approach.  Examples of approaches used include environmental psychology, geography, political science, phenomenology, policy analysis, and urban planning. Other disciplines are brought in for collaborative partnerships as needed.

Policy analysis: Includes comparative analysis, analysis of government, academic, and popular media documents, policy at multiple scales, and key stakeholder interviews.

Areas of expertise: These include, but are not limited to:

  • Urban and regional planning
  • Land Use and Transportation and health outcomes
  • Access to nature and health and well-being outcomes
  • Health and buildings
  • Active Living and Healthy Eating (HEAL)
  • Psychosocial  health and well-being