The tenth transnational project meeting of the partners of the European Platform for Urban Greening took place in Utrecht from the 7th–10th of October. To mark the culmination of this initial four-year project the meeting focussed on spin-offs that have emerged from the Platform, the achievements that have been made over the course of four years, an agenda for the future, and the commitments of partners and Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) to continue their work together.
The Year Ahead: Post-project Sustainability
Having applied to the European Commission for scale-up funding to continue the work of the European Platform for Urban Greening, the partners discussed their plans and commitments to maintain the momentum of the collaborations and initiatives developed over the past few years.
Each vocational school and industry partner has agreed to work together to ensure that 2025 will see: the continuation of International Urban Greening Week, which will be hosted in Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Romania, bring together regional and national networks throughout the year, and create opportunities for project-based learning, knowledge exchanges and training for students, teachers, and Green practitioners.
BeatheGreen Tec-Roc
The latest spin-off project coming out of the European Platform for Urban Greening to be awarded funding is BreatheGreen – Tech-Roc. Based on an Urban Vertical Garden pilot project between Spanish CoVE partners EFA La Malvesia, PAIMED, and Projar, BreatheGreen will see the installation of six Tec-Roc Urban green walls systems in each Centre of Vocational Excellence over the coming year.
The aim of the project (running through 2026) will be to explore the performance of the new Tec-Roc Urban green walls in different climate zones and to provide information and training on this new system, including construction and maintenance, for both professionals and students alike. Based on the initial pilot, this new Tec-Roc system will offer a lower cost commercial alternative to that of a traditional green wall, requiring less water and less maintenance, but with the same beneficial green results.
During the transnational project meeting, participants discussed technical aspects of Tec-Roc such as the geo-textile used to create layers in the wall, how to seed and spray substrate onto the textile, and preparations to be made in each location for the forthcoming anchoring and installation of the walls.
Experience Centre and Green Educational Roof
Marking a major achievement in the European Platform for Urban Greening project, meeting participants celebrated the inaugural launch of the Experience Centre and Green Educational Roof at Yuverta’s Green Hotspot. In a collaboration between local officials, Koninklijke Ginkel Groep, , Yuverta and many others, this new green roof annex experience centre will provide students, teachers, and practitioners with a physical space in which to learn and train in all aspects of both vertical and rooftop gardens. From installation, planting and maintenance, to safety protocols, water collection and irrigation innovations, this experience centre annex demonstration annex education facility offers a world-class prototype for best practices in training and education in Vertical Green.
EU Policies & Lobby
Celebrating the achievement of passing the Nature Restitution Law through European Parliament this past summer, Egbert Roozen, Secretary General of the European Landscape Contractors Association (ELCA) discussed the law and the great importance it will have on greening urban areas in the coming decades. As a member of the expert sub-group that will advise on the implementation of the Nature Restoration Regulation, ELCA will be in a prime position to champion Urban Greening and Nature-Based Solutions ensuring that the Green sector at large will have a role in shaping the implementation of policy.
Green, Health & Well-being
Always thinking about the future, Platform partners took advantage of their time together in person to discuss the impact that can be made by more closely aligning the Green sector with the Heath Care sector. Opportunities for future partnerships and educational initiatives were explored in-depth, alongside key-note talks that addressed themes including: mental health, behaviour and habits as they relate to the environment, green architecture and its impact on health, and the value of green healthcare for patient recovery and cures.
Insights into and success factors for (un)healthy behaviour
Behavioural scientist Dr Roel Hermans (Leefstijllab) explained how understanding behaviour is the essential link for lifestyle-based behaviour change. He talked about the prevention paradox; the seemingly contradictory situation where the majority of cases of a disease come from a population at low or moderate risk of that disease, and only a minority of cases come from the high risk population, and advocated the importance of using behavioural expertise, also in green projects.
What does a healthy green office look like and how does it work (or not)?
MOSS, Makers of Sustainable Spaces, is leading the world of Green Architecture and Biophilic Design. MOSS Architects specializes in green design projects ranging from tropical indoor gardens, intensive green roofs to urban agriculture projects. Nina Sickenga, founding partner of MOSS shared insights using two case studies:
- The 65,000 m2 headquarters of booking.com in the vibrant heart of Amsterdam, with continuous spatial experience of the building and lush, abundant interior living green all over the campus.
- And the tropical indoor garden at Central Park in Utrecht, also the destination of a site visit on Thursday so the Platform partners could experience the 500 m2 indoor oasis for themselves.
The green nurse; value of green for recovering and cure
Annemarie Bergsma is Chair and founder of The Sustainable Nurse (“the only nursing environmental organisation in the Netherlands”). The newerk grew out of her ambition to make nursing more sustainable. Our ecosystem is under pressure from environmental pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change. In it, healthcare alone accounts for 7% of total CO2 emissions (almost half of all traffic in the Netherlands).
In her keynote, Annemarie made a plea for the nurse of the future: One who focuses on prevention, on combating climate change (climate mitigation) and adapting to climate change (climate adaptation) and on climate justice. Importantly, nursing education and training should support this because research shows that education has the greatest impact on sustainability.
Site Visit: Natuurgebied Turfweide
On a tour led by experts Brian van Schaffelaar and Lena Grunicke from Koninklijke Ginkel Groep, Platform partners were taken to Natuurgebied Turfweide, a 3.5 acre ecological site that was carefully converted from an agricultural corn field, into a nature restoration wetlands. This project has reintroduced native flora and fauna back into this local environment and will allow for a long-term ecological study of the impacts that result.
Platform partners learned about the technicalities of realising the project, their reactive maintenance techniques and their strategies for educating and engaging the residential community surrounding the new site about the benefits of biodiversity.
Site Visits: Wonderwoods & Central Park
Showcasing two exceptional examples of Urban Greening and Interior Green in Utrecht, Platform partners we treated to a private tour of the soon-to-be-completed Wonderwoods project and the recently developed Central Park building.
Honoured as the best Mixed-Use building in Europe by the European Property Awards, Wonderwoods sets a new bar for incorporating a vertical forest into a two-tower residential and office complex. Throughout the tour, meeting participants were given a behind the scenes look at the technical aspects of the project that involves over 300 trees and 75,000 plants and shrubs, including anchoring trees into a multi-story building, understanding the engineering principles taken into account for weight bearing roofs and flooring to enable future maintenance, and the smart water management technologies employed to support the greenery.
The Central Park building, just a few blocks away, boasts its own two-story high 500 square metre park, located in the centre of the building at a height of 45 metres. Used as a multi-purpose space for work or a social gathering, this inspiring indoor park demonstrates a significant culture-shift in recognising the importance of Green in our daily lives and establishing interior green as a norm in the Netherlands.
Site Visit: Eco Residential Area EVA Lanxmeer
Guided by practor Heidi Kamerling of Yuverta, the Platform members visited EVA Lanxmeer, an experimental ecological residential district in Culemborg. The neighbourhood has been developed from 2000 onward in a water extraction area. It was an initiative of the EVA Foundation: Ecological Center for Education, Information and Advice. Residents in the district are required to be members of the EVA Lanxmeer Resident’s Association.
The neighbourhood is characterized by the architectural styles with many energy-saving measures, inaccessibility for cars, plus green areas and communal gardens that are maintained by the residents, although in consultation with the municipality. In addition, publicly accessible courtyards and site edges are owned and ecologically maintained by local residents.
EVA Lanxmeer is a showcase of next-level citizen participation in greenery, a strong connection of landscape elements and architecture, and outstanding embedding of sustainable water management and sustainable energy supply in the urban development plan.
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