The project “BiodiverCity” was carried out in Malmö in 2012-2014. The project aimed to increase urban biodiversity by creating new products, services and processes for greener cities. The project's goal was to create permanent demonstrations for the dissemination of innovative solutions for urban greenery.
Marketplace of ideas
Mexico City, Mexico
The barter market project “Mercado del Trueque” was established in Mexico City in 2012 with the aim to raise Mexico City’s residents’ awareness of the importance of recycling and local consumption. The barter market is held monthly and enables citizens to exchange clean and separated household solid waste for locally produced agricultural food.
Hamburg, Germany
The BIQ (Bio Intelligent Quotient) house in Hamburg represents the world’s first pilot project for the implementation of a bio-reactive façade in residential buildings. The bio-reactive façade, called SolarLeaf, absorbs CO2 emissions while cultivating microalgae to generate biomass and heat as renewable energy sources.
Bogota, Colombia
TransMilenio is Bogotá’s sustainable mass urban transport system based on a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) scheme. It is the BRT with the highest passanger capacity worldwide. The objective of the project is to establish a safe, efficient, rapid, comfortable and effective modern mass transit system that ensures high levels of passenger transportation.
Mexico City, Mexico
EcoBici, Mexico City’s bike sharing programme, was launched in 2010 to increase cycling while simultaneously reducing traffic congestion and transport related greenhouse gas emissions within the city. Bikes placed at several stations are able to be used for transportation within the city when users register and pay a small fee.
Paris, France
The City of Paris, together with the Île-de-France region, was the first major European city, which successfully deployed a public electric car-sharing program. The program started in 2011 with an initial fleet of 250 eco-friendly electric 'Bluecars'. The program today (2015) has more than 3,000 cars operating on the streets of Paris and within the whole region. There are around 860 Autolib stations where users can subscribe, pick up or drop off the cars. As well, there are 4,400 parking spaces and charging points reserved exclusively for ”Bluecars”.
Milan, Italy
Food waste is collected in Milan in special biodegradable bags and transferred to an anaerobic digestion plant which generates biogas and compost.Thanks to the high involvement of citizens, the current recycling rate of food waste in Milan is already above the EU target of 50% by 2020.
Évora, Portugal
Inovgrid is an innovative pilot smart-grids project that was implemented in the city of Évora (Inovcity). The initiative provides smart meters to the electricity consumers’ resident in Évora, free of cost. These smart meters collect data about individual consumption profiles and collective grid demands. After a few years of data collection this project enables and optimizes the smooth integration of decentralized energy generation, and electric vehicles (charging infrastructure) into the grid.
Cape Town, South Africa
The integrated waste management facility Kraaifontein was opened in the northern suburbs of Cape Town in 2011. As “first of its kind” in South Africa it constitutes a benchmark for integrated waste management, incorporating various waste treatment facilities at one location. Collected at source, waste is brought to the facility and processed further. Incoming waste is sorted, chipped, recycled, and transported to landfilling, etc. The facility also offers also a public drop-off and is equipped with a conference centre.
San Francisco, USA
San Francisco city is implementing an innovative and comprehensive group of policy initiatives along with incentive programs to improve the energy and environmental performance of new and existing buildings, denominated as “Green Building Program”. Under this program, innovative ordinances have imposed green building requirements for residential and commercial buildings newly constructed and for the renovations of the existing buildings. Subsequently, California's Building Standards Commission developed in 2010 the California Green Building Standards Code designated by "CAL Green".
Singapore, Singapore
Singapore is one of the world’s leaders in urban greenery on buildings. In 2009, the National Parks Board of Singapore developed the Skyrise Greenery Incentive Scheme (SGIS), which promotes greenery on high- rise buildings, and thus contributes towards Singapore ́s vision of a City in a Garden.
Barcelona, Spain
The Superblocks project, designed by the Municipality of Barcelona in collaboration with the Urban Ecology Agency, represents an innovative planning approach for addressing urban challenges such as mobility, public space, biodiversity and social cohesion. Superblocks are territorial units imagined as bigger than one block of the dense Barcelona´s urban matrix with strict grid pattern, but still smaller than a whole neighbourhood.
Beddington, UK
The BedZED (Beddington Zero Energy Development) is the UK's first and largest carbon-neutral eco-community and is located in Sutton, a residential town 40 minutes southwest of London. It is the UK’s first large-scale, mixed use sustainable community with homes, office space, a college and community facilities. The BedZED design concept was driven by the desire to create a net-zero fossil energy development, one that will produce at least as much energy from renewable sources as it consumes.
Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
The Green Belt is a group of semi-natural periurban spaces partially recovered from degraded areas, such as gravel pits, burnt ground and drained wetlands from the fringe areas of Vitoria-Gasteiz. Through the Green Belt project, the city has been making progress since the 1990s in land management to recover biodiversity by restoring many of its damaged ecological and landscape areas.
Lima, Peru
In response to given water scarcity and underdeveloped wastewater treatment, Lima had collaborated with stakeholders to impact national legislation on wastewater reuse and to establish a demonstration project: using treated wastewater for a multifunctional city Eco-Park. This legislation allowing for wastewater reuse for irrigation of urban green spaces has opened the way for further applications with multiple benefits.
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