21 cities,  with 5 million  EU citizens involved, and 21 task forces that in four years have enhanced 21 urban areas with innovative approaches in multi-dimensional health are the numbers of the urban transformation that have improved well-being and health across Europe since September 2020.

When we work together towards a shared vision for better health outcomes, both nature and people flourish. On 2-3nd July at Blue Point Brussels, Go GreenRoutes, euPOLIS, IN-HABIT, VARCITIES led particpants on a journey to explore the possibilities when nature meets health. The event showcased best practices, key impacts and offered participants the opportunity to hear the voice of the pioneers of innovations to inspire a new generation of initiatives on nature and health. 

Over the past four years, 21 European cities have activated residents and local actors on the ground to transform urban health, with a focus on novel approaches to health, including nature as part of health, not just a catalyst for changes in health indicators. Over almost four years, the experts and researchers and nature-based enterprises who have collaborated on four sister projects over the last 4 years: Go GreenRoutes, euPOLIS, IN-HABIT, VARCITIES (funded under the same Horizon 2020 call) have learned many important lessons and formed strong alliances with initiatives in the urban health sphere and developed strategic partnerships with local governance in the form of ambassadors, city councils, NGO’s and the immense effort of citizens on the ground in our local task forces.

Since we stepped forward together as a cluster, everyone at the event aimed to uplift the work collaboratively and with political influence in mind. Our keynote speakers set the scene and called attention to the importance of clustering and factoring in the impact we could have to implement ideals laid out by the EU Nature Restoration Law and to transform opportunities to reality.

Calling to our obligation to keep evoloving and collaborating inclusively for change, GoGreenRoutes coordinator Taghd MacIntyre said, “We are all multidimensional. Change is part of that. It’s in the relationship between people that we build change with an inclusive approach to nature.”

VARCITIES recently released an excellent recap on key takeaways from the event which you can access here.

In the meantime we also invite you to learn more about the One Health 4 Cities initiative of which our Cultivating City Lahti (Finland) is a major player.

In the coming months GoGreenRoutes will be releasing information on our lessons from our work, the legacy of which will contribute to objectives for the GoGreenNext project and the up and coming NbS Health Cluster which held its first meeting during the Cluster Final Event. Stay tuned to learn more!