Sustainable production

Heeley City Farm came into existence in the middle of 1981 (ref 3). It is a community-based and led training, employment and youth enterprise (ref 1) and a much needed green space in the inner suburban Sheffield with recycling, healthy living facilities, a garden centre, cafe, and charity shop. Heeley City Farm also manages food growing projects across Sheffield. (Ref 3) The Farm addresses poverty, inequality, prejudice and lack of opportunity by supporting community regeneration and self-help within environmentally friendly and self-sustaining systems, using the background of a mini-farm, community gardens and related resources. (Ref1)

A vegetable garden located on the property of an elementary school, allowing children to grow their own vegetables, minimizing the lunch costs for the school's management and bringing together parents, children and volunteers in creating a space for learning, relaxation and community all under the umbrella of environmental protection (1).

A community garden at the margins of Bucharest, which aims to serve both locals and tourists, and the only place of its kind for the 240.000 inhabitants of the quarter. Apart from its educational aspects, the garden is a living workshop and a place of relaxation for its visitors (1).

Named after the first mayor of Lisboa after the 25 April Revolution, the Aquilino Ribeiro Machado garden and the horticultural park provides an area of 25000 squared meters of green space, connecting Alvalade to the Alta de Lisboa. Divided into various zones interconnected by walkable trails and paths, the park offers fields where locals dedicate themselves to farming and gardening, several fitness types of equipment, a children playground, tables and benches and a different kind of viewpoint for a different sight of the city, watching the planes of the Humberto Delgado airport landing or taking off. There are bicycle roads along the park as well. (7)

The vertical gardens were installed on a property whose two street-facing facades are almost entirely covered with layered greenery. The building is a mini-lung and an example of sustainability for the city, keeping the principles of a living habitat and a relationship with the outside, assuming a revitalizing urban role. Its walls are completely covered with vegetation, creating a vertical garden, with around 4500 plants. (ref.3, 1)The architect who designed the property was originally commissioned to transform an old building but serious structural problems meant the building had to be demolished, and with the chance to start from scratch, considerations for a more radical design began. (1)

In September 2011, a new eco-friendly student village ‘The Green’ opened to students at the University of Bradford. The new eco-village "The Green" has been designed to incorporate a range of features to enable students to live in a more sustainable way. It is part of a broader sustainability initiative by the University of Bradford called 'ecoversity' and its development is clustered around a pond, which is a part of a sustainable urban drainage system (SUDs). The Urban Pond/biodiversity pond – at The Green increases the biodiversity of the site. The site has been designed and landscaped with nature in mind, consisting of grassed areas, a wildflower border, shrubberies and native trees. (ref 3) The £30.4million development was the first multi-residential building in the UK - and one of only 15 buildings worldwide (ref 7).

The aim of the project was to plant many varieties of vines on flood embankments of the southern tip of Ostrow Tumski on a stretch of 1 km. Grapes would be free of charge, as the idea of the project was to set up a community garden where the effects of the citizens’ work would be available long-term and publicly accessible [1]. In 2014 the project was in a pilot stage which resulted in a successful application for funds from the participatory budget in 2016. Despite the awarded money, the project has never been implemented, hence the applicants (Foundation “Vineyards of Poznan”) pressed charges against City Hall. Today, the project is still in the initial form from its pilot phase [9].

The didactic park Salvatore Buglione links its agricultural tradition and presence of plants and trees with social and cultural innovation (namely a playground for kids, a didactical botanical garden and an organized reading lab). A specialized lab aims at promoting civic and eco-functions, in line with the overall project of the city of Naples to allocate 2 million euros to regenerate the green areas of the city. The project “Orti Sociali” of the park represents an attempt to reach social inclusion and environmental awareness, underlying the crucial function of public parks in terms of environmental and social services (Ref.1.)

The Mab Lane Community Woodland was planted on a former playing field at Mab lane and Croxdale Road West in Liverpool. It is a part of the larger Mersey Forest initiative which has been increasing the amount of woodland and green spaces across Cheshire and Merseyside since 1991.
The new woodland which has a network of native trees, wildflower meadows a community orchard as well as seasonal wetland areas and footpaths, was officially opened by the local community in 2010. It also includes new pathways for walkers and cyclists and areas for family picnics (Ref. 2, 10). Mab Lane Community Woodland is a partnership project involving the Forestry Commission, Northwest Development Agency, Mersey Forest, Big Lottery, Riverside Group, Liverpool City Council and the Local Community (Ref. 10).

Nancy has the most community gardens in France. While these gardens are generally designed at the initiative of associations or collectives of inhabitants, in Nancy, they are part of the urban development plans.
This demonstrates a real desire from the city to bring the inhabitants closer to sustainable development while providing them with the means to create greenery in the heart of the city (Ref. 1). The Plateau-de-Haye district, where green space was recently created, allowed the emergence of many plots (Ref. 2).