Future Green Cities Conference

We at Green Adelaide are constantly looking for inspiration from around the world and were recently fortunate to travel to one of the world’s premiere environmental forums, the Future Green City Congress, which was held in the stunning Dutch city of Utrecht.

Green Adelaide’s National Park City Project Lead, Dr Sheryn Pitman, travelled to the congress along with Green Adelaide’s Manager of Strategy and Performance, Louisa Halliday, to connect with world leaders in the urban futures space.

The conference was rich and insightful, and looked at cities from various viewpoints such as strategy, health, inclusivity, attractiveness, circular economy and the role of nature. There was great diversity in presentation and communication format and style, highlighting the power of good science communication, the importance of vision and leadership, and the need for experimentation, innovation, and collaboration.

Dr Pitman says seeing how cities in Europe and other parts of the world connect with nature and progress the healthy cities agenda is both thought provoking and inspiring.

“Being together with passionate and committed professionals from all walks of life provided a really rare and invaluable opportunity to consider how we in Adelaide can improve our relationship with urban nature,” Dr Pitman said.

One of the fascinating case studies presented at the Future Green City Congress was about the green transformation the city of Paris is currently achieving. Paris is one of the densest cities in Europe with huge concerns around increasing urban heat, poor air quality, loss of biodiversity and the various impacts on human physical and mental health.

To combat this Paris has begun to build the city around vegetation, prioritising greening everywhere possible. Their 6-year plan (2020-2026) includes the removal of unnecessary hard surfaces, addition of 100 hectares of green space, and planting over 170,000 trees. The engagement of citizens in this transformation is also an important part of the process.

Dr Pitman says this, and many other examples demonstrate a global shift towards the greening of cities, including a renewed focus on planning and design for biodiversity, which is why the National Park City movement is so timely and important.

“It’s all about being inspired by the relationships we have with nature in national parks and creating similar connections in urban areas wherever possible.

“People in other cities are very interested in what we are doing here too. We are fortunate in Adelaide to be surrounded by so much greenery and wildlife, a beautiful coastline and beaches, wetlands and waterways, parks and gardens, with many groups and organisations caring for our urban nature places.

“As one of the first two National Park Cities in the world we have an amazing opportunity to support other cities in their journeys and show leadership in this space.”

Dr Pitman said that there were several key takeaways from the congress.

“It was wonderful to experience incredibly innovative and well-researched storytelling and science communication - something we are always looking to nurture and improve. It was encouraging to see strong and committed leadership coming from various sectors, including government and community, and to see the extent of collaboration between disciplines.

“Importantly, it was enlightening to see the wealth of innovation and invention taking place, often in the context of space restrictions, and we look forward to taking inspiration from the innovation of cities around the world.

“Finally, we were reminded of how much we can learn from history, and the history of cities is indeed fascinating. Learning from the past while leaning into the future with open and inquisitive minds will help us find and create the nature-based solutions we seek.”

The concept of ‘National Park City’ is a global movement to improve life for people and nature in cities. Green Adelaide spearheaded the campaign which saw Adelaide become a National Park City on 10 December 2021. Adelaide’s status as a National Park City is supported by Green Adelaide as a way to connect sectors, businesses and individuals with nature and each other.