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                    Greening the city

                    Trees on the rooftop of the Carlton Hotel building
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                    More than just being beautiful, plants and trees provide clean air, clean water and increase our resilience to the impacts of climate change by cooling the atmosphere.

                    Like many cities around the world, we recognise trees and other vegetation as critical urban infrastructure – equally important to how our city functions as transport networks, and particularly vital to the wellbeing of our community. Urban greening also supports Melbourne’s economy, providing cooling and amenity which supports the pedestrian economy and reduces operating costs for local businesses. City of Melbourne is encouraging more innovative methods for greening our city, such as green roofs and vertical greening. 

                    Green roofs, walls and facades are appealing as a way of adding green infrastructure to our city because they can be included on new buildings or retrofitted onto existing buildings, and they do not necessarily require space at ground level. They can be used to compensate for the loss of urban greenery and to provide cooling and amenity in places where there is no space for other types of green infrastructure. 

                    Self-guided walking tours

                    Discover how Melbourne is adapting to climate change on a self-guided walking tour.

                    Explore the city and surrounds on foot, and discover the greening and infrastructure adapting Melbourne to the impacts of climate change. Visit and find out about green walls, stormwater harvesting, tree pits and other projects that contribute to Melbourne’s sustainability story. The four, free, self-guided walks cover the CBD and immediate surrounds.

                    Each walk is between 2km and 4km long, and visits sites like green walls, green roofs, tree pits, stormwater harvesting systems, urban gardens and nature based solutions to the impacts of climate change.

                    Greening tips and guidelines

                    Plans and strategies

                    Featured video

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                    We’re greening our city one laneway at a time. Melbourne is famous for its numerous laneways. Explore four completed lanes - Guildford Lane, Meyers Place, Coromandel Place and Katherine Place - as part of our Green Your Laneway pilot project.

                    Canopy Green Roofs Forum

                    Canopy is a quarterly discussion forum that brings people together to share information and ideas for greening our cities. Topics covered in past forums include green roofs, walls and other green urban infrastructure. Email your queries to canopy@melbourne.vic.gov.au.