Youth Award Shortlist

Melbourne’s Green Factor tool can inspire the youth to solve climate issues by providing them with a globally-accessible resource and tangible data that strengthens urban greening concepts.

The tool empowers young people to actively engage in understanding the benefits of green infrastructure, including how urban greening can provide a multitude of ecosystem-services. It encourages ownership of environmental design and promotes environmental stewardship of the built environment. By making this evidence-based tool free and digitally-accessible, the City of Melbourne is fostering a sense of responsibility and encouraging innovative greening among the younger generation.

Melbourne’s Green Factor tool promotes education and awareness about the importance of green infrastructure and engages the youth to consider the performance of their greening proposals. It promotes skill development and inspires users to elevate the way they develop their proposals to aspire to greening excellence. Since its creation, the tool has been employed in undergraduate landscape architectural studios and urban horticultural research to innovate designs and quantitatively analyse vegetation performance in field ecology. This inspired students to explore their local neighbourhoods within their respective countries, and then share how they’d applied the Green Factor tool to their urban greening theory and design practice across unique cities and urban environments.

The youth’s role in delivering greening outcomes through use of Melbourne’s Green Factor tool is multifaceted, encompassing innovation, data-driven decision-making, collaboration and project monitoring. Their active involvement is essential for driving positive environmental change and creating resilient, greener and more sustainable cities and communities.

Overall, the Green Factor tool can have a transformative impact on youth by educating, engaging, and empowering the younger generation to become proactive stewards through use of appropriate tools that can strengthen greening choices across the built environment.

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The Olympic Way at Barra da Tijuca is currently undergoing a transformation into a public legacy: the Rita Lee Park. This revitalization project includes a sports complex, children’s play areas, climbing wall, and a skatepark, besides a green area restoration with native flora. It also encompasses the construction of a public school for 1000 children through the retrofitting of Carioca Arena 3, the old 2016 Olympics venue for judo and wrestling. The Rio Olympic Museum (old Velodrome), is part of this redevelopment. This project is turning the Olympic Way into a green, sports, and leisure destination for all population.

The legacy of the Olympic Games in our city extends far beyond mere infrastructure; it is a testament to our commitment to shaping a greener, more engaging future for our youth. The Olympic Park facilities were transformed into vibrant hubs of activity and inspiration, epitomized by the Olympic Arenas, which are easily connected by Rita Lee Park.

A groundbreaking achievement in this legacy is the conversion of Arena Carioca 3 into the largest public school in Rio, the Olympic Educational Gymnasiums (OEG) – Isabel Salgado, the first Olympic Venue to become a public School in the World. This school provides holistic education to 900 children/year, while nurturing sporting talents and ensuring them a brighter future. The education program integrates our community families with Park Rita Lee creating activities of planting and learning about our endemic vegetation, since the kids’ parents will also have the opportunity to participate in these activities.

Rita Lee Park also strengthens the youth with recreational, sporting and cultural activities that celebrate Rio’s outdoor greenery. With a palette of vibrant colors throughout the floor with different layouts, we seek to bring fun to the space that has organic beds with dense vegetation, creating small forests.

Moreover, the Olympic Velodrome facility hosts international championships, doubling as a training ground for our national cycling federation. In 2024, it will also be used as cultural equipment, serving as the house of Rio Olympic Museum. Together, these initiatives underscore the city’s dedication in creating a green legacy through our youth.

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The City of Joondalup supports young people to embrace healthy and active lifestyles by providing green urban environments for them to undertake social, recreational and sporting activity. This includes playgrounds, parks, skate parks, sporting grounds, natural areas and more. Young people are encouraged to volunteer and care for the environment through the City’s Adopt a Coastline/Bushland Program. The City invites young people to have a say in their future by engaging with them through targeted forums such as the City’s Strategic Community Plan Youth Mayoral Workshop and youth representatives on the City’s Strategic Community Reference Group.

The City has a range of parks and natural areas available for young people to undertake social and recreation activities. The City ensures that plants and trees are a focus in these areas to provide natural shade and amenity. The City even upcycles trees that have been removed for safety reasons as nature play items in City playspaces.

The City invited young people to have a say in the City’s Strategic Community Plan. Through a consultation process young people told the City that plants, trees and the environment are important to them and need to be protected.

The City’s Natural Areas team works directly with young people to undertake planting within the City’s coastline and bushland via Adopt and Coastline and Bushland programs each year.

The City’s Adopt and Coastline and Bushland programs aim to raise young people’s awareness and appreciation of the ecological values of the natural environment. Young people gain a sense of ownership of their City as well as environmental management skills such as weeding and planting.

Through engagement with young people the City has identified that young people already embrace the unique natural environment that the City has to offer. Young people have indicated that they want a future where even more trees are planted across the City. They want to ensure that the City’s unique coastal and bushland environment continues to thrive and be protected for future generations to respect and enjoy.

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