Outdoor recreational activities are essential in promoting the physical and mental well-being of children, fostering their relationship with nature, and off ering opportunities for environmental education. Urban green public spaces serve as the principal venues for children’s outdoor pursuits, and their recreational and educational signifi cance has been extensively examined in scholarly research. However, the rapid pace of urbanization has resulted in a scarcity of green space, posing signifi cant challenges to the development of environmental education for children. This study uses the Zhongcheng Community in Nanjing as a case study and adopts a food education theme to investigate the potential of non-green public spaces in high-density urban communities to serve as settings for children’s environmental education. Using in-depth interviews and design practice, this study identifi es the key components and interrelationships that constitute the educational value of such spaces. Through textual coding and thematic analysis, it proposes a four-dimensional “Cognition - Attitude - Practice - Constraint” (CAPC) framework, which is validated through the design process. The results indicate that the eff ectiveness of environmental education in urban non-green public spaces is infl uenced by 10 major factors and 27 subcomponents, including children’s spatial, natural, and social cognition; environmental ethics; learning motivation; participation in spatial transformation and maintenance; family collaboration; physical attributes; and management mechanisms. Non-green urban public spaces, due to their high frequency of use and strong accessibility, can signifi cantly enhance children’s environmental cognition, ecological responsibility, and behavioral engagement. By proposing the CAPC framework, this study off ers both theoretical insights and practical strategies for advancing environmental education in high-density urban environments. It challenges the traditional reliance on natural green spaces and contributes innovative perspectives to the development of child-friendly cities.