Commit to Green: Participatory urban greening and renaturing towards climate neutrality and resilience in European cities (Commit2Green/C2G)

C2G supports 8 cities to move away from a project-by-project NBS intervention approach towards the development of greening and renaturing strategies that (a) are cross-scalar and participatory (b) inform existing development agendas and policies, and (c) are implemented through demonstrators that create tangible impact on the ground for the local communities and broader ecosystem.

This paradigm shift is founded on the operationalisation of Ecosystem Services (ES) in city decision-making at the district and city scale.

Specifically, C2G assesses the current supply of ES in cities (e.g. flood and heat risk reduction, recreation) and runs targeted engagement activities to map community vulnerabilities, as perceived by stakeholders themselves. These vulnerabilities translate into key place-based priorities, i.e. the demand for ES.

C2G works intensely to bridges this gap between supply and demand using districts as entry points.

Considering that citizens experience life and meet their needs in this spatial scale, local greening contributions can significantly improve quality of life.

A portfolio of projects is defined in the district scale (zoom-in), while coherence with the broader urban fabric, whether blue, green or grey, is maintained (zoom-out). In this way, C2G achieves cross-scalar ecological connectivity.

Ultimately, each city will develop context-specific planning guidelines and nature-inclusion strategies that will be turned into “Design solutions for blue-green-grey infrastructure with biodiversity net-gain”.

Demonstrators will apply these solutions with citizens participating along the NBS life cycle, from vulnerability assessments in the early phases through to placemaking activities during implementation.

This innovative participation approach ensures that interventions maximise perceived value and minimize trade-off risks (e.g. changes in streetscape uses). Satisfaction assessments shall serve as a validation of the success of the co-design approach.