The award, which is divided into four categories: Urban Greenery, Greenery Maintenance, Best Volunteer Initiative for the Management of Urban Green Spaces and The Resilient City, stands out as a national Italian recognition for policies aimed at the valorisation, management and development of urban greenery and landscape. The theme of the 2026 edition focuses on green spaces as strategic infrastructure for quality of life, biodiversity and adaptation to climate change. The award ceremony took place on 20 February at the Myplant & Garden, a trade fair for ornamental horticulture, gardening and landscape architecture.

Roberto Panzeri, who is responsible for the award, said during the award ceremony: ‘The projects selected in this edition show that public green spaces are not just areas that need to be managed, but also drivers of cultural, ecological and social change that can have a concrete impact on the sustainable future of our regions.’

THE CATEGORIES OF THE AWARD: FROM URBAN GREEN SPACES TO CLIMATE RESILIENCE

The Green Space Maintenance section, reserved for local authorities, rewards the good maintenance of municipal green spaces by assessing the initiatives taken on the basis of a detailed analysis of the measures implemented and by also rewarding the degree of computerisation of the service. An additional criterion for the selection of projects is the assessment of GPP (Green Public Procurement), a strategic tool at the service of the sustainable economy that enables public authorities to apply environmental criteria when purchasing goods and services.

The Best Volunteer Initiative for the Management of Urban Green Spaces category is intended for volunteer organisations that provide a public service for the redevelopment and maintenance of green spaces in cities, while the Resilient City award is intended to reward cities that are committed to strategic measures to adapt to climate change, as provided for in the National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change, with particular attention to measures in the areas of urban greenery, soil permeability, water management and social spaces.

THE AWARD-WINNING PROJECTS

The choice of the award organisers for the selection of projects was guided by a number of decisive strengths, such as: sharing and citizen participation, including with the support of volunteers in project management; the maintenance of public green spaces as a common good; design choices in line with natural processes (Nature-based Solutions) and with the increase in biodiversity; criteria for ecological and economic sustainability; the restoration and repurposing of abandoned or degraded urban areas and specific attention to communication and information for users of green areas, including for educational purposes. All the award-winning projects – and there were many – offer a particularly representative picture of this 2026 edition.

This year, the “La Città per il Verde – weTree” award was presented once again, a prize created in collaboration with weTree and dedicated to a female personality who has distinguished herself in the green sector with a project nominated in the Urban Greenery category.