Cities invited to enter the AIPH World Green City Awards

Cities worldwide are keen to share, learn, and implement best practice in city greening, and to promote their own urban greening achievements. The International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH) initiated the AIPH World Green City Awards to bring wide recognition to city leaders who embrace the value of plants in providing solutions for common city problems, and to create an enabling environment to shape and nurture a strategic shift in city governance and planning.

World city awards are highly coveted, bringing attention to a city that results in increased business, tourism and development as well as community pride. The AIPH World Green City Awards are unique in the sense that they are the first global awards where plants and nature are the core focus. Cities strive to be ‘green cities’ for their own liveability and resilience, and in response to national and global agendas. The AIPH World Green City Awards are offered in recognition of excellence in this regard, provide an opportunity for cities to be associated with the only global city awards which celebrate urban living green and have plants and nature as the core focus.

The AIPH World Green City Awards were launched on 22^nd April 2021 at the AIPH Green City conference “Champions of Green Cities”, and online entries are now open for the inaugural 2022 edition. The awards themselves will be presented at a gala ceremony to be held in October 2022.

AIPH, the International Association of Horticultural Producers has, since 1948, united horticultural producers in an international community that thrives to this day. Much has changed in that time. Technologies advanced, cities rose from the ground, and we have become more connected than ever. As a result, our essential bond with nature has been weakened.

AIPH strives to reignite and uphold an appreciation of plants that we believe is a basic human instinct. Nature is the foundation on which our increasingly urban lives depend. Through our Green City Programme, we promote the essential role of plants in creating vibrant urban areas and aim to develop an international standard for green cities as well as being a focal point for green city best practice and a source of expertise.

AIPH leads global thinking on the successful integration of nature into the built environment by supporting the bold and ambitious actions of local governments and aims to inspire a global movement of local governments who are champions of nature-orientated approaches to building greener, healthier, and more liveable cities that are fit for the future. Now, more than ever before, it is essential that the true value of urban green space is globally understood, and that decision-makers have the tools to guarantee its position. The AIPH 2020 Green City Guidelines aim to provide practitioners and decision-makers with the essential information they need to understand and communicate the benefits of investing in urban green infrastructure and nature-based solutions. The Green City Principles position ‘living green’ as a fundamental solution to many of the challenges of contemporary life and are the philosophy on which the AIPH 2020 Green City Guidelines are based. These principles are also the foundation on which the AIPH World Green City Awards are designed and built.

AIPH World Green City Awards

AIPH, the world’s champion for the power of plants, proudly presents the AIPH World Green City Awards, an ongoing competition, with entries open every 2 years. Entries are open until 14^th March 2022 for the inaugural edition.

The awards celebrate innovation, achievement, and commitment to the globally recognised imperative to embrace a nature-orientated solutions that harvest the power of plants and associated ecosystems services to help address the major challenges facing cities today – or tomorrow. The leading role of city authorities is recognised for promoting and supporting greater inclusion of nature and plants in urban environments. The AIPH World Green City Awards 2022 recognise public initiatives that rely on a greater use of plants and nature to create better city environments – helping to fulfil local aspirations for improved economic, social and environmental resilience.

AIPH invites all cities, large and small, to enter the 2022 edition of the AIPH World Green City Awards.

Enter the Awards today!

For any queries, questions, feedback, or to get in touch with the AIPH team, mail timothy.blatch@aiph.org or audrey.timm@aiph.org