IFLA Europe recognises the importance of advancing the shift from grey to green infrastructure
At the 2025 IFLA Europe General Assembly in Brussels, the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA Europe) honoured ICLEI Europe with its annual award, recognising the organisation’s leadership in driving the transition from grey to green infrastructure across European cities.
The award reflects a growing recognition among planners, designers, and policymakers that Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are essential to urban resilience, health, and liveability. Integrating living systems into cities is now seen as a cornerstone of sustainable development, requiring collaboration across sectors and disciplines.
Accepting the award, ICLEI Europe Regional Director Matthew Bach emphasised this shared mission:
“We are no longer asking if a city looks modern; we are asking if it is resilient. The true measure of innovation today is not steel and concrete, but its integrated living infrastructure. This is the great pivot that unites ICLEI and IFLA Europe. We view Nature-Based Solutions as essential climate infrastructure.”
Horizon projects, including NetworkNature, have been instrumental in creating shared frameworks for local governments to embed NbS into urban policy and planning. These efforts connect science, design, and governance to make nature a foundational element of the urban fabric.
A clear example of this approach can be found in Burgas, Bulgaria, a city active in several ongoing and finished NbS-focused projects such as GoGreenRoutes, Urban Nature Plans+, and Re-Value. Burgas has developed a health park near local hospitals, transforming grey infrastructure into a restorative green space that supports both biodiversity and community wellbeing.
The IFLA Europe Award highlights the importance of such collaborations—between local governments, landscape architects, and networks like NetworkNature—in advancing a shared European vision for greener, healthier, and more resilient cities.