The city of Barcelona is reinventing the work soil; a social entrepreneur in Utrecht is trying to challenge the way the government cooperates with local green initiatives; and a housing company in Malmo is redefining neighbourhood design for the 21st century. All these actions represent different examples of innovation – some of which are completely novel, and some of which utilise existing ideas in a new way. Innovation is the theme of the 5th episode of the Creating Green Cities podcast....

Hans Pijls, founder of the “Food for Good” urban farm in Utrecht, believes his project generates different types of value for the city, such as improving the economic value of surrounding buildings, boosting employment, and generating positive effects for health, well-being and urban biodiversity. But the initiative is only able to receive one type of public funding. To ensure its survival, Food for Good cooperates with local enterpreneurs and tries to generate some of its own income by...

The city of Barcelona has an entire strategy dedicated to taking care of its trees, called the Tree Masterplan. To create this Masterplan, the city talked to over 700 different people - from gardeners to urban planners and from restaurant owners to street cleaners - to understand their needs, viewpoints and opinions on this topic. In the Swedish city of Malmö, the Municipal Housing Company has gone a step further and is actively engaging everyone from local residents to utility companies to...

Living in a neighborhood with lots of trees will make you live longer… or will it? Urban nature is said to bring diverse health, social, economic and environmental benefits to cities and their populations. Understanding the scale of and access to these benefits is important if such nature-based solutions are to be considered as a viable alternative to more traditional grey infrastructure approaches to addressing urban challenges. So how exactly can the impact of nature-based solutions be...

Green roofs make buildings cool. Literally. As cities deal with the impacts of climate change, green roofs can offer solutions and help with rainwater management, insulation and cooling, amongst other benefits. No matter the weather, installing a green roof also benefits biodiversity and can transform inaccessible, unused areas into inspiring communal green spaces in the middle of densely built urban centres. Green roofs are one of the many “nature-based solutions” featured in the Creating...