The industrial and modernist City of Velenje (36 000 inhabitants) is the sixth largest city in Slovenia. It is located in the pre-alpine region of Slovenia in the eastern part of Šaleška valley at an altitude of 396 meters. Velenje is focusing on green transformations.

As a market it was first mentioned in the 13th century and become a city in the 1950´s. At the end of 19th century, the coal mine was established and after World War II the city began its rapid development due to the increasing demand for coal. From the spatial planning development point of view, the formation of Velenje is as a city in the park. 
Today Velenje is a city municipality and the sixth biggest town in Slovenia, and an important economic, educational, cultural, and administrative centre. 

The city’s ”Office for Economic Development and Transition” has successfully implemented more than 40 EU co-financed projects. Most recent Interreg Central Europe Programme projects: as a LP in project HICAPS – Historical Castle Parks, as a project partner in projects RUINS – sustainable re-use, preservation and modern management of historical ruins in Central Europe – elaboration of integrated model and guidelines based on synthesis of the best European experiences, ECRR – European Cultural Route of Reformation. Within other programmes Velenje worked in Agrigo4Cities project (Interreg Danube Program) which goal was promoting urban and suburban agriculture to increase public institutional capacity and the inclusion of marginalised groups.

Tyresö is a fast-growing municipality in Sweden’s capital, Stockholm, with approximately 50 000 inhabitants. Tyresö is only a short distance from the centre of Stockholm, but has a strong green and blue character, including both an archipelago coastline and part of Tyresta National Park, Europe’s most central national park, making nature an important part of the city’s identity.

These major natural resources contain many recreational and ecological values of both national and regional importance. However, there is a lack of local parks, playgrounds and other meeting places close to residential areas. This needs to be developed to meet the needs of the growing population in a denser urban area. The Tyresö Comprehensive Plan states that the municipality should develop in a sustainable way in terms of environmental, social and financial aspects.

Tyresö’s Strategy for parks and nearby nature, adopted by the municipality in 2019, aims to improve the quality of local and neighbourhood green spaces, while facilitating access to larger green spaces, such as Tyresta National Park. The main vision of the strategy is that every resident in Tyresö has good access to a variety of beautiful and well-maintained parks and neighbourhood green spaces. The municipality also aims to have a dense, connected and rich green infrastructure.
Tyresö was a partner in the Swedish innovation project Parkliv, where they worked with SLU researchers and Living Cities and communities to adapt a previously underused urban green space to the needs of children. The Tyresö MULL will continue the established collaboration from Parkliv and build on the social learning of co-creation of urban green spaces within the municipality through focusing on reflexive governance.

City of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (157,000), is a fast-growing city and the capital of the province of North-Brabant in the south of the Netherlands. The city was established in 1185 right there where the rivers Aa and Dommel merge. It brought the city a spectacular nature of marshes and wetlands south of the city and a dynamic river landscape on the north.

In recent decades, the city has been working on 'The Green Delta', a network of nature reserves around the city, focusing on nature, landscape, water, recreation, heritage and agriculture. The aims is to strengthen the relationship between the city and the countryside. 

The city's geo-spatial position makes it highly vulnerable to climate change. In 2021, the plan S-Hertogenbosch, Green and Climate-proof was established as part of the Sustainability program of the city. It proposes measures to cope with heat stress, heavy rainfall and to increase biodiversity. It includes a standard for new projects in the city for water, green and nature-inclusive building. For this program the city build a vast network of local initiatives on greening cities, such as urban agriculture (transfarmers), food forests, tiny forests, weathermakers, neighbourhood gardens, green roof initiatives and small scale greening initiatives by inhabitants and/or entrepreneurs.