Improved air quality

An enterprise called Alicante Forestal constructed a vertical garden in Mallorca, in an office in Santa Ponca (Ref 1). The garden was installed indoors, making a green wall in the headquarters of the local business (Ref 1). There is in 2020 not only this garden, but a service given by Alicante Forestal in Mallorca to design and install these in other parts of Spain, as well as courses for building these gardens in different countries in the world including Spain, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina and Mexico (Ref 3).

This project deals with the creation of a green roof and a green area around the new headquarters of the IDOM Group (an independent multinational company that offers professional integrated services in Consulting, Engineering and Architecture around the world), located in an old French warehouse (a customs warehouse) on the Deusto canal in the port of Bilbao. It has an area of ​​14,400 m2 dedicated to offices, research and development spaces such as white room and workshop prototypes, and social spaces. (Ref 1)

The experimental green facade system consisting of four different types of green wall was installed in Nurnberg from 2013 until 2016 on Adolf-Braun-Strasse 33 and is an integrated greening system that enables self-sufficient, low-maintenance "hanging gardens" on facades and other vertical walls. The aim of the project is to experiment with recreating green spaces in the streets, asphalt surfaces, and backyards of some parts of Nuremberg overcoming numerous constraints and competing uses (1) The implementation has helped improve air quality, thermal insulation, wind and rain protection and lowering local temperatures in its proximity. (2)

The Veneto Eye Bank Foundation, a social welfare organization and regional centre of reference for cornea transplantation and research into epithelial stem cells, is a distinct and iconic project which embraces architect Emilio Ambasz's philosophy of "The Green Over the Gray," or the landscape over the building. It is a triangular-shaped building with a series of landscaped terraces at each floor level on one side. On the opposite side, the building rises as a series of steps that lead to a flat planted roof garden turning it into an outdoor amphitheatre. The combination of the plantings and deep overhangs minimises the impact of heat loads by blocking sunlight during the middle of the day (ref 1).

The company running the Zabalgarbi waste disposal site manages a solid waste–to-energy plant and also houses a mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plant, a composting plant, a landfill and a leachate treatment plant. During construction of the first plant, Zabalgarbi regenerated and recovered the entire Artigas-Arraiz area covering 108 hectares. The area was degraded by shaft mining activity and an opencast quarry. The project aimed at the reforestation and landslide mitigation of this degraded area. Today the area has been reforested, trails were built and space provided for people to enjoy themselves in gardens, picnic areas and along forest tracks. (Ref 1)

Vertical Garden is a 110 m2 garden installed in 2015 by Singular Green in front of the Hotel HM Tropical, as an outdoor project. (Ref 1) In October 2016, there was another 100m2 of garden installed. In 2020, there are also other companies that are trying to install vertical gardens on the island (Ref 4). There are special plants that were chosen due to its adaptive characteristics, as well as a special arrangement of the plants for aesthetics (Ref 1).

The Urban Forest project represents an increase of urban trees in the city. There will be two phases of this project. In the first, it consists of a transformation of an eye-sore and abandoned space, around previous Canodrome, into a large urban forest (Ref 1, 9). The second one will be located in the land of the velodrome of Es Tirador. This projec has been delaid due to unforeseen costs (Ref 10).

On 'De Roma', an old cinema that has been renovated into a theatre, a green roof of 650m2 was created which improves biodiversity and contributes to Antwerp's climate change adaptation (Ref. 1, 4). A bee house was also later installed on the roof (Ref. 2). The green roof is created by volunteers of De Roma and Kopspel, which is an organization that provides learning-working places for student of 'Deeltijds beroepssecundair onderwijs (Part-time Secondary Professional Education) and temporary employment for people that want to turn back to the labour market (Ref. 1).

A project began in June 2017 to plant grass, flowers, trees, and shrubs on 10 hectares of “muddy spots”, or unused lands that were being eroded and increasing of dust particles in the city. The aim of the project was to improve the air quality and stop these muddy areas being used as unregulated parking spots. The project was initiated and is partly implemented by the municipality, while volunteers also took part in the initiative, brought together by the citizen group called When we Become 100 000 – we Will Plant a Forest. The project planned to use compost from the new composting facility in Sofia, which reuses food waste. (Ref. 1; Ref. 2)

A green roof of the total area of 362 m2 was established in a modernized historic neighbourhood in the centre of Bydgoszcz. The rooftop serves aesthetic and recreational purposes for the residents and visitors. Selected plants retain as much as 40-99% of rainwater and absorb air pollution [1].