This week, Tallinn hands over the title of European Green Capital to Valencia. The year of the green capital gave Tallinn the opportunity to test new environmentally friendly solutions, initiate new types of environmental and inclusion projects and keep environmental issues in focus, contributing to a change in the mindset of the city itself and its residents.
The year of the European Green Capital will come to an end, but the changes made during the year will remain. “We used the year of the green capital to make decisions with a long-term impact. In cooperation with Utilitas, Tallinn invested in innovative sources of renewable energy, i.e., sewage and seawater pumps to produce heating, that will ensure energy price stability, energy security and significantly reduce the city’s carbon footprint,” said Tallinn Mayor Mihhail Kõlvart.
“Furthermore, Tallinn initiated the Test in Tallinn program last year, in which 13 companies test their new technologies in our city in the field of mobility and energy. However, the basis of all changes is a change in mindset, and this was brought about by the year of the green capital,” added Kõlvart.
Green Tracks project
In the year of the Green Capital, the tactical urbanism project Green Tracks was launched to test different solutions in Tallinn’s urban space and get feedback from local communities. For example, the summer park on Town Hall Square (seen in the picture) was created, which turned out to be so successful that it will be opened again next summer. New public leisure areas were created near Pirita Beach and around Linnahall. New solutions were tried in landscaping: several trees that were growing in the middle of construction sites were replanted and the intensity of mowing grass was reduced during the hot summer period.
The year of the Green Capital will be remembered in Tallinn’s urban space by 14 new flower meadows, parklets that provide greenery in parking spaces, a new pocket park made from replanted trees, greenery created at three major intersections, nine food groves, more than 300 planted shade trees to relieve summer heatwaves, 150 trees planted by the participants of the youth song and dance festival etc. The Green Tracks project will continue this year.
In cooperation with the OECD, the Tallinn circular economy report was released in June, which gave a big boost to the implementation of the circular economy in Tallinn. It also accelerated the development of Tallinn’s circular economy action plan, which will be started this year. Reuse rooms and repair workshops were also created at Tallinn’s waste centres and construction of the first circular economy centre began.
Learn more about Tallinn as the European Green Capital 2023 here.
