Posted on November 16, 2025
Post categories: In the Media Research Urban Design & Planning
Cities around the world are setting more ambitious climate goals and taking a closer look at how the places we build shape daily life. As the conversation about embodied carbon and sustainable development grows, planners and policymakers are increasingly aware that land use decisions made today will influence how communities live, grow, and adapt for generations.
A new guide and workbook, Embodying Justice in the Built Environment: Just and Equitable Land Use Transitions, offers cities a practical way to approach these decisions with clarity and care. Created through a collaboration led by the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance (CNCA), the resource invites cities to look beyond technical standards and consider the values, histories, and lived experiences that define a place.
One of the guide’s authors is Assistant Professor Dylan Stevenson, a faculty member in the Department of Urban Design and Planning and of Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and Citizen Potawatomi Nation descent. Stevenson’s work examines how planning decisions and governance structures shape access, opportunity, and identity across generations. For him, justice-centered land use transitions begin with an honest acknowledgment of how past policies continue to shape communities.
“Unintended harms from past policies continue to affect communities, which makes acknowledging that history essential,” Stevenson said. “Repair is possible, and cities have practical pathways to do this work. Stronger relationships, real community input, and long-term thinking all lead to better outcomes. Justice and climate neutrality are not competing goals. Integrating them creates more effective and more equitable transitions.”
Stevenson notes that cities often feel unsure where to begin. The guide aims to show that this work is not unattainable. With reflection, collaboration, and clear frameworks, cities can reshape land transitions in ways that strengthen communities and support climate action.
A Story of Reinterpreting Land, Value, and Care
To help cities visualize how justice and climate goals can align, the guide includes practice stories that ground big ideas in real-world examples. One story, shaped by Stevenson’s research lens, focuses on Tribal Land Back arrangements and the powerful reframing they offer for how cities understand land use.
The story begins with a California Tribe that has inhabited its ancestral lands since time immemorial. However, colonial forces and urbanization violently displaced the Tribe, including an island that would eventually come under municipal control. For years, the site sat underused. Previous land uses had severely degraded the land, making it difficult to determine the best pathway forward for future land use decisions.
Through years of dialogue and partnership, the city was able to return the land back to the Tribe. When the land was returned to the Tribal Nation whose ancestors had lived on, moved through, and cared for the area for generations, ‘land use’ considerations shifted with new meaning.
What had once been considered an underutilized lot became a living space of renewal. Restoration work helped native species return and remediate pollutants. Cultural and ceremonial practices could finally return. In time, the space functioned as both a cultural anchor and an environmental asset, offering cooler temperatures, richer soils, and healthier habitat within the surrounding area.
For city planners observing the transition, the lesson was clear: when land is understood not simply as a commodity but as a relationship, new possibilities emerge for climate-resilient stewardship, cultural continuity, and long-term care. The site’s most valuable use was not tied to market return. Its value came from its ability to restore connections, support ecological health, and strengthen a community that had long been excluded from planning decisions.
This example encourages cities to rethink foundational assumptions. It shows how returning land to Tribal nations can be a pathway to repair, grounded in reciprocity and aligned with carbon-neutral futures. It also highlights the deep expertise Indigenous communities bring to land management and how two-way collaboration between cities and Tribal governments can create more just and sustainable outcomes.
As Stevenson notes, these shifts are not theoretical—they are the result of intentional choices rooted in mutual care. “This story shows what becomes possible when reciprocity guides land use decisions,” he said. “Returning land to Tribal nations isn’t just symbolic. It opens pathways for cultural renewal and ecological care that benefit the entire community.”