The title of Green Capital of Europe 2016 has greatly strengthened the visibility of Ljubljana around the world and put the city on the maps of leading sustainable, green, tourist and innovative cities. Recently, the Municipality of Ljubljana, published a five-year report that presents numerous activities, implemented projects, improvements, achievements, and key information that have marked Slovenia’s capital in the past five years and that have had a decisive impact on an even higher quality of life in the city. The main emphasis of the report lays on the sustainable development of Ljubljana.
In 2016, Ljubljana planted the first fruit tree and opened the first public orchard in the city. Since then, it has already established six public orchards with 534 seedlings of different fruit species. Additionaly, Ljubljana planted a popular castle vineyard with 1050 vines in the city centre. Ljubljana also takes care of trees and urban forest: in five years, the city has planted more than 3,500 trees. In 2019, Slovenia’s capital became part of the Tree Cities of the World initiative. The city is surrounded by hills overgrown with indigenous forest which occupies as much as 46 percent of the total area of the municipality.
In 2016, the city designed the Bee Path which today brings together more than 40 partners that strengthen the heritage of beekeeping and highlight the importance of the bees for ours as well as for the planet’s survival. City upgrades the Bee Path every consecutive year since and it has expanded it in collaboration with five other European cities under the Urbact programme, the project BeePathNet across Europe and Slovenia. In 2017 and 2019, Ljubljana received the title of The Most Bee-Friendly Municipality of Slovenia.
Monocle, the prestigious global magazine covering international affairs, business, culture and design, ranked Ljubljana among the 25 best small cities in the world. According to them, Ljubljana is »one of the most interesting small European capitals«. Monocle praised Ljubljana mainly for the regulation of its urban green areas, pedestrian-friendly downtown, numerous bike routes and many other innovations. Additionally, Ljubljana was ranked for the sixth time among the Global TOP 100 most sustainable destinations.
