In Chania, Greece, a former concrete parking façade is now blooming with jasmine. In this episode of What’s That Green? Podcast, we explore how a vertical garden is improving air quality, cooling the city, and reconnecting people with nature, all through a deeply participatory process. From citizen choices to hands-on planting with children, the Jasmine Wall shows how even a single intervention can spark wider change.
Can participatory methods such as Service Design (SD) help design, operate, and maintain Nature-Based Solutions in cities over the long term? This article explores the need for accessible participatory approaches such as Service Design to implement NbS and examines what worked—and what didn’t, in two real-world European cities, where energy efficiency, maintenance practices, and everyday behaviors directly influence the performance of green infrastructure and NbS. Through a service-design process, the goal was to examine how users interact with current environmental features, what motivates their choices, and how future NbS interventions could be designed to be intuitive, inclusive, and effective , and most importantly, to enhance a long-term plan for operation and NbS usability.
Who takes care of urban green spaces after they’re built? Through our Open Call on shared stewardship of urban green spaces, we received submissions from projects across the globe. Now we want to bring contributors and curious minds together to turn these insights into something practical: a map that truly works for the people who need it. Join us and help shape the result!