Making cities healthier places for people to live
The majority of the world’s population lives in cities, and climate change is hitting city dwellers the hardest.
We’re keen to explore how we can reimagine healthcare, and the way societies can better promote and support people’s health in a changing climate.
We believe that cities can play a huge role.
Creating an urban landscapewe all want to live in
What defines a healthy city? With climate change presenting a fundamental threat to our health, we look at what urban health really means and how together, we can create spaces where people are able to thrive.
Bupa's Healthy Cities programme
Through Healthy Cities we aim to support people’s health in a changing climate, and help people make the link between their health and the environment.
Launched in 2015 in Spain and now a global initiative, the Healthy Cities programme encourages people to adopt sustainable and healthy lifestyles, while Bupa invests in regenerating urban environments for people to thrive.
Our goal is to support 1 million people by the end of 2025.
Challenge
The programme encourages people – our customers, people, partners, and communities - to do things that keep them and the planet healthy, like being active.
Regeneration
In return, we fund urban nature projects in partnership with local authorities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Advocacy
Through the programme we will raise awareness and build partnerships to drive action for healthier, greener cities.
To keep people healthy in a changing climate, we must create environments that support their wellbeing.
Our nature regeneration efforts focus on deprived urban areas across cities where Bupa has a presence, and peri-urban areas where nature is declining. By focusing on urban areas we ensure our regeneration activities support human health, and bring benefits to local communities.
Examples of our activities include:
UK
In the UK we’ve partnered with Trees for Cities. To date, we’ve helped plant over 9,600 trees in neighbourhoods that have the highest level of deprivation, lowest canopy cover and least access to green space, including school playgrounds. This year, we aim for the partnership to enable a further 20,100 trees to be planted.
Spain
In Spain we’re planting 28,000 trees this year – one tree for every person who took part in Healthy Cities Step Challenge, planting them in cities across Spain via a Green Funds scheme.
Australia
The Bupa Foundation Australia funds the Nature Blocks program, which encourages individuals to plant in their own front and backyards. The program is focussed on encouraging biodiversity back into the communities in which people live.
Our Healthy Cities programme includes global advocacy and partnerships activity on climate, health and cities.
This is a critical way that we work with others to raise awareness of the link between our health and that of our environments, and to drive cross-sector collaboration to create healthier, greener cities that support the health of people and planet.
Norman Foster Foundation (NFF)
Bupa has a global, three-year collaboration agreement joining forces with the Norman Foster Foundation (NFF). The partnership will help create healthy and climate-resilient cities that benefit people and planet health.
As the health partner of the Norman Foster Institute of Sustainable Cities Master's Programme, we provide support to train future city leaders, architects, planners and engineers, helping them put health at the centre of sustainable city design.
Find out more about our partnership with the Norman Foster Foundation
Thought leadership and advocacy
We’ve collaborated with NFF and C40 Cities to outline the growing health risks due to climate change and what can be done mitigate these risks.
We recently published our second Healthy and Climate-Resilient Cities report (PDF, 12.4MB) with C40 Cities, and the Norman Foster Foundation, which details what city leaders of the future need so that they can put health at the heart of urban environments’ design.
This edition builds on the recommendations of the 2023 report which included the creation and resourcing of multisectoral city leadership groups and embedding a health-centred, climate-resilient approach to urban redesign.
Coalitions
As part of the Race to Zero, the Sustainable Markets Initiative Health Systems Taskforce, and the Sustainable Healthcare Coalition, we work alongside other healthcare companies, the WHO, and the NHS to develop strategies to decarbonise the healthcare sector and drive health system resilience. We’re also partnered with Health Care Without Harm to address single-use items, patient travel, and hospital emissions, helping healthcare’s impact on the environment.
2024Highlights
People across 24 countries have taken part in Healthy Cities
24
countries
Over 62,000 people have walked a total of 16 billion steps
16bn
steps
Steps taken have unlocked over £2.8 million invested in nature projects
£3m
invested
Healthy and climate-resilient cities
The second edition of Bupa's Healthy and Climate-Resilient Cities report details what’s needed to help the next generation of city leaders and urban designers develop a new model for cities, putting health at the centre of design to better support people in a changing climate.