Impact Funding Resources
The AIPH World Green City Awards is the first and only global awards for cities where plants and nature are the core focus. As an ongoing competition with entries open every 2 years, the Awards recognize the role of city authorities in promoting and supporting greater inclusion of plants and nature in urban environments.
The Awards are designed to champion ambitious nature-orientated approaches to city design and operation. Specifically, they seek to recognize public initiatives relying 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.
The Awards are designed to champion ambitious nature-orientated approaches to city design and operation. Specifically, they seek to recognize public initiatives relying 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.
Start Date20 May 2025 End Date15 Sep 2025 Funding AmountN/A Funding Resource TypeAward
Funding ProviderInternational Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH)
Award
International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH)
The Awards are designed to champion ambitious nature-orientated approaches to city design and operation. Specifically, they seek to recognize public initiatives relying 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.
Categories
• Living Green for Biodiversity and Urban Ecosystem Restoration
• Living Green for Climate Change
• Living Green for Health and Wellbeing
• Living Green for Water
• Living Green for Social Cohesion and Inclusive Communities
• Living Green for Urban Agriculture and Food Systems
• Living Green for Urban Infrastructure and Liveability
Award entries will be assessed on the basis of six evaluation criteria:
• Vision: the initiative should be bold and include a fresh new model for using and/or delivering nature-orientated solution(s).
• Significance: the initiative should be designed to address a serious local problem or set of problems.
• Implementation: the initiative should have achieved or be well on its way to achieving its stated objective(s) and/or desirable outcomes.
• Learning and Transferability: the initiative should have generated some learning content or mechanisms that enable enhanced local practice in the future and/or offer potential for customised replication in other cities.
• Measuring and Reporting Impact: The initiative should demonstrate progress in response to monitoring, measuring, and reporting on its outcomes, impact, and success at various scales.
• Resilience: The initiative should be mindful of its impact on the planet and of its ability to be sustained over time.
AIPH is looking to reward nature-orientated solutions that harvest the power of plants and associated ecosystems services to help address the major challenges facing cities today – or tomorrow. Specifically, we seek strategic initiatives that are bold, pursue a meaningful impact, are being successfully implemented, have potential to further scale or spread to other cities, and exemplify resilience in how they are conducted.
Entries for the AIPH World Green City Awards 2026 must fit these objectives:
1. Be an initiative that demonstrates an ambitious approach and showcases a city-wide vision and commitment to making the city greener, healthier, and more sustainable.
2. Be an initiative which comprises a city-wide greening programme or set of projects, rather than an individual project.
3. Draw attention to a specific programme/initiative within the city’s overall greening strategy, while demonstrating how that initiative/programme is linked to the city’s overall green ambition and vision.
4. Demonstrate feasibility and proven success in implementation with measurable, and quantifiable impact.
5. Demonstrate that a significant portion of the initiative has been implemented over the last 5 years, even if there is still some implementation remaining beyond 2026.
To be eligible, such strategic initiatives must be implemented within a city. A city is defined as ‘a single urban area/human settlement, large or small, which, along with its surrounding expanse, is nationally recognised as being under the jurisdiction of a single legally defined local or sub-national government authority.’ If your entry involves a multi-city initiative, your submission must be based on the activities in your city as the primary city. You may refer to activities in other cities as ‘ripple effects’ of the initiative beyond the primary city.
