Climate forum event "Urban greening"

What role do private owners and urban stakeholders play in urban greening? What are the challenges and solutions for promoting biodiversity in urban areas? These and other questions were addressed by over 50 stakeholders at the Zurich Climate Forum on May 15, 2024.

How can urban greening be implemented effectively? What role do private owners and municipal actors play in this? What are the main challenges and solutions for promoting biodiversity in urban areas? How can the consideration of biodiversity be strategically anchored in the early phases of construction planning? More than 50 stakeholders in and around Zurich addressed these questions on May 15, 2024. The participants included planners, owners, landscape architects, investors, large cooperatives, municipal representatives and developers. As part of the climate forum event "Green networks: synergies for a green Zurich", a place was created to promote the exchange of knowledge and networking, provide information and highlight existing funding opportunities in the greening sector for private owners and property management companies as well as the benefits of greening. The event was organized in collaboration with Klimaforum (co-chaired by Umwelt- & Gesundheitsschutz, City of Zurich and Impact Hub Zurich), Grün Stadt Zürich and Intep - Integrale Planung GmbH.

Procedure

The event was divided into an input and discussion part. The city of Zurich addressed the climate targets as well as the goals and approaches for a green city. A bridge was then built to private property and possible challenges and solutions for more greening were identified and discussed together. In the discussion section, participants were invited to actively contribute and discuss their experiences, views and questions. Sustainable solutions should be developed together.

Insights and presentations

Before the interactive part of the event, members of the City of Zurich from various departments presented insights into their areas of influence and work relating to urban greening. Silvia Burgdorf (UGZ) started with the initial situation in the city of Zurich. The city of Zurich is aiming for net zero by 2040 and is focusing on the increased promotion of heat reduction and biodiversity in its strategic planning for 2022 to 2025. While there are clear targets and guidelines for public areas, mandatory requirements and subsidies for the greening of private areas are rare. The potential is enormous. In a meeting of property owners, large cooperatives, building owners and landscape architects with the City of Zurich, existing hurdles and opportunities for empowerment are to be identified, existing subsidies from the city (and others) communicated and explicit approaches and measures defined so that biodiversity and heat reduction are fully taken into account in construction and renovation projects.

This was followed by Gessica Gambaro (Intep) with a contribution on "Greenery on, on and around buildings: its importance". She emphasized climate protection and the health benefits of CO₂ sequestration and pollutant reduction, as well as climate adaptation through cooling effects, rainwater retention and the promotion of biodiversity.

Bettina Tschander (GSZ) provided an insight into urban nature planning and presented, among other things, approaches for a biodiverse city as well as a funding program that will be launched in June to support private owners in the process towards more biodiversity in building planning.

Theres Fankhauser from the Office for Buildings (AHB) then presented her role and tasks as a department of the City of Zurich.

Finally, Maria Sautter (Intep) explained how forward-looking and phase-appropriate planning of greening is the key to sustainable construction.

Solution approaches

In interdisciplinary groups, stakeholders discussed numerous ideas on visions, challenges and solutions in these four fields of action on the topics of "Soil & Trees", "Sound & Acoustic Quality", "Façade & Roof Greening" and "Energy Generation". This revealed a number of overarching hurdles and possible solutions:

• Education and awareness-raising: There is potential for education and awareness-raising regarding the benefits of green spaces and opportunities for noise and energy optimization. It was proposed to raise awareness of these issues through broad-based education campaigns. In addition, exchange groups are to be established to promote regular dialog across institutions.
• Planning and tendering processes: The complex planning and tendering processes represent a hurdle. Simplifying and merging these processes would help to increase efficiency and facilitate the implementation of sustainable projects. The synergies between greening, energy generation and acoustic quality were emphasized several times. Clearer guidelines, a uniform process and the integration of greening into existing processes could reduce hurdles.
• Conflicts of interest and coordination: Conflicts of interest and a lack of coordination or limited opportunities for exchange between different actors were also identified as challenges. In order to improve this, the creation of a central coordination office or mediation office was proposed, which would enable mediation with the direct contact persons, but also promote a holistic exchange between the stakeholders. The aim is to identify synergy opportunities arising from conflicts of interest, minimize misunderstandings and enable more effective cooperation.

Shortly before the aperitif, both the stakeholders and the organizers from the City of Zurich, intep and Impact Hub Zurich jointly concluded that by specifically addressing these challenges and implementing appropriate solutions, the obstacles to promoting urban green spaces and improving sound and energy efficiency could be better overcome. Valuable contacts and networking opportunities were also established, which will hopefully accelerate the implementation of the measures and the utilization of synergy potential.