Deadline: 15-Oct-25
The International Association of Horticultural Producers is calling for entries for the World Green City Awards for cities where plants and nature are the core focus.
The AIPH World Green City Awards are designed to champion nature-oriented solutions that harvest the power of plants and associated ecosystem services to help address the major challenges facing cities today.
Award Categories
- For the 2026 edition of the World Green City Awards, the seven award categories are:
- Living Green for Biodiversity and Urban Ecosystem Restoration
- Addressing the loss of species, habitats, ecosystem health, and genetic diversity.
- Living Green in a city provides habitats to support ecological communities for a diverse range of living organisms. Plants provide the backbone for all nature to thrive. City Biodiversity has an increasingly important role to play in global conservation efforts.
- Living Green for Climate Change
- Tackling the root causes and effects of climate change in order to build more liveable and resilient cities.
- Living Green solutions such as street trees, green roofs and walls, and parks and gardens, all contribute to moderating the impacts of climate change. In solving problems such as the urban heat island effect and poor local air quality, nature-based-solutions deliver quantifiable cash value to city authorities as well as enhancing the quality of life for citizens.
- Living Green for Health and Wellbeing
- Addressing the medical, behavioural, and social determinants of health for residents.
- People are measurably happier when they work and live in green surroundings. This comes from both physical and psychological benefits. Improved health results in lower costs for health-care providers, and benefits the economy through improved productivity and lower absenteeism and staff turnover.
- Living Green for Water
- Ensuring water resources are safeguarded and wisely used, with clean water available to all while also protecting residents from flooding risks.
- Water issues related to drought and flooding are already a significant impact of climate change, with traditional engineering solutions commonly overwhelmed. Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems incorporate plants into water management systems, thereby offering considerable advantages over engineering solutions, an, at the same time, providing additional benefits of amenity and recreation, and space for wildlife.
- Living Green for Social Cohesion and Inclusive Communities
- Bringing urban populations together and fostering belonging, equity, trust and inter-generational as well as cross-cultural relationships to prevent exclusion, marginalisation, and violence.
- Greener environments encourage people to spend more time in outdoor spaces, improving social interaction and community cohesion which in turn contributes to reduced crime. Community cohesion is especially important in multi-cultural communities and also enable inter-generational social relationships.
- Living Green for Urban Agriculture and Food Systems
- Creating strategies and practices that build the resilience of city food supplies to increase employment and nutritional outcomes, reduce poverty and address urban environmental degradation.
- Urban agriculture offers numerous benefits to cities, providing solutions to problems associated with transportation, health, land use, waste management, education, and community cohesion. Permanent or temporary use of private and public land can increase capacity for local food production. Community gardening promotes self-sufficiency and reduces food miles
- Living Green for Urban Infrastructure and Liveability
- Promoting and supporting nature-positive lifestyles for all city residents, visitors and businesses, through a well-planned, designed, and maintained built environment.
- Greenery around buildings can reduce energy consumption by providing insulation and shading, keeping buildings cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Vegetation can also improve air quality by absorbing carbon dioxide and filtering particulate matter. Views of nature from workplaces and residential buildings enhances well-being and productivity, emphasizing the importance of biophilic design.
- Living Green for Biodiversity and Urban Ecosystem Restoration
Benefits
- There are many benefits to entering the AIPH World Green City Awards. It is the first international competition that cities enter to:
- Gain recognition for the greening they have done and the benefits to their city
- Promote their city at an international level.
- Inspire a global movement for greener cities.
- Demonstrate that their city is highly desirable to live and work in.
- Showcase how urban nature can improve the health of citizens, increase job opportunities, stimulate economic development, and strengthen greening regulations.
- Demonstrate how ambitious local actions contribute to achieving global agendas.
Eligibility Criteria
- Any city around the world can submit entries to the award on condition that:
- The submission is made by the local authority governing the city – such as the mayor’s or executive officer’s office or a relevant department of the local government administration.
- The initiative described in the entry has begun implementation in 2020 or later. If the initiative described is part of a longer-term approach, then the entry should focus on and discuss results of the stage that has begun since 2020.
- The initiative described is strategic in nature – ie: a policy and/or a programme leading to the delivery of a collection of related projects rather than a single project- and is clearly linked to a city-wide green vision.
- The initiative described has secured all, or a substantial amount of implementation funds and can demonstrate financial viability.
For more information, visit AIPH.