The Netherlands

Candidate – The Netherlands

Submission by: Municipality of Leiden

Project name: ‘Working Together’ (Samen aan de Slag – SadS)

Short description

‘Working Together’ (SadS) in Leiden supports residents in greening their immediate living environment and has, since its launch in 2016, resulted in more than 5,000 resident agreements.

What began with individual façade gardens and tree pits has evolved into a street-based approach, where entire streets and neighborhoods are greened together. Residents form their own green groups to take on larger planting projects.

SadS facilitates this process by providing plant packages, ecologically grown plant material, logistical support, and financial assistance, working in collaboration with partners such as Naturalis, Cruyd-Hoeck, the Hortus Botanicus, and locally with De Zijl Bedrijven (DZB) — the municipal organization that supports people distanced from the labor market — as well as neighborhood green groups. Residents themselves are responsible for planting and maintenance.

The project is fully integrated within the Municipality of Leiden, enjoys broad political support, and promotes biodiversity, community engagement, and innovation in urban greening.

a) Greenery and social Cohesion

SadS is pre-eminently a resident-driven greening project. Residents, therefore, have a lot of influence on which planting will be placed in a façade garden, tree level or plant border. But by enticing residents with a plant package at a street approach, we can steer the plants offered. Our package was already almost entirely indigenous, but in cooperation with Cruyd-Hoeck, it now also includes as much autochthonous planting material as possible. Planting material that we propagate in our own greenhouses and then distribute among our residents.

b) Overall design (landscape and asociated structures)

Within SadS, we work with a designer who incorporates the historical context of the inner city into his designs. Where rain barrels are placed in public spaces to provide water for façade gardens and tree pits, they are designed to match the size of a paving stone — fitting perfectly with the dimensions of the gardens. Each design aims to maximize greenery.

c) Wellbeing of Visitors/UsersFactors

At the start, strengthening social cohesion was not a primary goal. However, after shifting from individual applications to street-based applications two years into the project, we began to notice a significant increase in neighborhood connection. Residents even sent us messages such as:

“The nice thing about the façade garden project is that spontaneous contact arose through the neighborhood app. Several people offered help to neighbors staying at home, including me. One neighbor even offered to cook for me, which I declined because of possible COVID risks, but she’s bringing me groceries this week, which is wonderful.”

In recent years, applications for larger community initiatives, such as neighborhood vegetable gardens, have increased substantially.

d) Climate

The combination of increasing green space and installing rain barrels in Leiden has a measurable effect on rainwater collection. While this effect may be limited during extreme rainfall events, the main benefit lies in reducing potable water use for plants. Although not yet quantifiable, perhaps the greatest impact is the increased awareness about water use. Maximizing greenery around buildings and streets also contributes to local cooling.

e) Environmental impact

Where we remove stones and paving to create green spaces, we store them at our Stone Exchange. Previously, these materials would be taken away by contractors, but now they are reused citywide, fitting circular objectives. In consultation with our soil supplier, we have developed a good soil mixture that gives plants a strong start. The soil we now use is also peat-free.

f) Economic impact

Residents and business owners tell us they greatly appreciate the added greenery. At the same time, so many factors affect the local economy that greening is only one, although a very visible, factor in it.

g) Materials used

We reuse as many materials as possible that are recovered from other city projects — including plants that are removed due to redevelopment or construction. Through our platform groenestad071.nl, we also match supply and demand for plants.

i) Innovation and Reproducibility

What distinguishes SadS is our total commitment to successful greening by our residents. This is expressed by removing as many potential obstacles or mental barriers in advance as possible. We add extra fertile soil, so plants almost always thrive. This allows people with less gardening experience to have immediate success, helping them overcome any “green anxiety.” We also act immediately if existing green initiatives are damaged or disturbed, for example, by utility works. Behind the scenes, we determine who caused the damage and any compensation, but the most important thing is that the resident knows their plants will be restored. This increases the likelihood of residents speaking positively about SadS at social gatherings.

What we do is not unique, but our long-term commitment and focus on residents differentiate us from other façade garden projects, which are often short-term or one-off. Our approach is therefore highly reproducible, and we have shared our story and method with many municipalities that approached us for guidance on the SadS approach.