Private sector/corporate actor/company

In 2014, students, instructors and representatives of an appropriate company built a "small green roof" on the balcony above the entrance to the Department of Architecture at the Bialystok University of Technology. The initiative was a part of the "Green City by nature" project - a nationwide educational campaign about nature-based urban solutions. It took only 5 hours to unfold the roll of grass and prepare the ground for all year thuja and vines [1,2].

As part of a larger project, this project aimed at creating a vertical garden in the Levante Square, in the Deustro neighborhood, the city of Bilbao. The intervention was initiated by the Bilbao's municipality in 2016 and aimed at creating a green area that was a bit unconventional and artistic at the same time. The landscape design incorporates local elements such as the trawlers, the cliffs of the Cantabrian coast and the local architecture, integrating nature and tradition (Ref 1).

Abandoibarra is an area of ​​the town of Bilbao, next to the Bilbao estuary, sizing ​​348,500 square meters. Abandoibarra has been the industrial zone of Bilbao, where shipyards and other companies related to the industrial sector were located. Building upon the 1997 master plan completed by Balmori Associates, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and Aguinaga y Asociados, the area has been reinvented as an international cultural district and tourist destination. Two-thirds of the 30-hectare site is dedicated to parks and open spaces, creating a public oasis and grounds for a suite of buildings by master architects (Ref 1,2).

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)

Zorrotzaurre is an artificial peninsula located within the Deusto district of Bilbao, Spain. It was formed during the 1950s and the 1960s, when a canal was built to facilitate navigation in the estuary of Bilbao. The Zorrotzaurre project is the latest major urban renewal project to commence in Bilbao. It is an integral and sustainable plan that recuperates a currently derelict site to convert it into a new quarter, and which also includes a flood protection system with water tanks to retain water and a flood protection barrier (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).

GIFT-T (Green Infrastructure For Tomorrow - Together!) is a four-year European project of which Medway was one of five case studies. In this project communities, businesses and governments were brought together to facilitate bottom up planning and implementation of green infrastructure (Ref 1). The product of this is a general business plan, and the planned intervention of focus here is the "Thames Terrace Invertebrates - corridors for wildlife" (Ref 2). Hoo Island already has areas that serve well to sustain invertebra species, but as of yet also has underutilised potential in this respect. This intervention addresses the latter.

Lodge Hill is a nature area allocated to become a settlement capable of delivering approximately 5000 dwellings by 2028 (original plans). Green infrastructure is a key component of the current plans and specific GI implementation will be based on the existing GI assets. Specifically, the plans include green corridors, sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDs), various parks and street greenery, community allotments, buffer zones around sites of special scientific importance (SSSIs) and woodland (Ref 1).
The plans for Lodge Hill have been controversial, as Chattenden Woods and Lodge Hill Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is a nationally important area of ancient woodland and rare grassland that supports one of the largest populations of nightingales in the UK (Ref. 7, 8, 9).
In 2018 Kent Wildlife Trust started a campaign (#SaveLodgeHill) to ask Medway Council to not to allocate Lodge Hill development, which has resulted in a scaled-back version of the original plans for Lodge Hill from the construction of 2,000 to 500 houses, avoiding any direct loss of the Site of Special Scientific Interest - which will still have an impact on the nightingale's population (Reg. 7).

The former Paulsgrove landfill is being developed into the Horsea Island Country Park to address the deficit of public open space for Portsmouth’s residents (3). The council plans to put in place a number of initiatives to make sure the country park is a recreational facility and attracts a diverse range of wildlife. This is being progressed through the PUSH Green Infrastructure Implementation Plan. (1). Veolia, the company that operated the landfill site on Horsea Island has the responsibility for implementing the landscape proposals which include tree planting, grass areas, wildflower meadows, footpaths and cycle routes. (2).

The drought-tolerant garden was established by Portsmouth Water at its Head Office entrance in 2007. The plants in the garden, all of which require little or no watering, were chosen to be visually stimulating whilst contributing colour, scent and variation in leaf texture and shape (1). This garden has been designed to be drought-tolerant, easily maintained and can take some wear and tear. The planting reflects the changing seasons with something of interest all year. None of the plants is difficult to grow and is easily obtainable (2).