Healthier, greener and more liveable communities supported by Greening The West.
The next Greening The West Strategy (2020-25) was recently published to be launched in March 2020, post current COVID restrictions, to guide the steering committee for the next five years.
Download & read the Greening The West Strategy 2020-25
This next phase of Greening The West is a template supporting community health and promoting liveability through urban greening initiatives, collaborating with the many passionate stakeholders to continue supporting greener outcomes.
A core driver for Greening The West is improving community health and wellbeing. The Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) data suggests from a health perspective, the people of the west are disadvantaged. Preventable chronic health diseases that are well above the Victorian state average.
The DHHS recognises the provisioning of quality green open spaces to allow for passive and active recreation as a critical strategy to tackle health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heat stress and the deleterious effects of air pollution. Influencing planning outcomes for more sustainable design in new housing developments are considered important aspects of Greening The West.
So, there’s a big opportunity and need to explain the initiative and sell its value to benefit our community. This can be linked with successful projects like One Million Trees (1MT), Greening The Pipeline (GTP), Upper Stony Creek and City West Water’s Stormwater Partnership Fund; all catalyst to make the west of Melbourne, a greener, cooler, healthier and resilient place to live.
Key outputs expected from the GTW Strategy:
- Support green infrastructure to enhance community general health and wellbeing
- Maximise urban greening to improve liveability and connectivity across Melbourne’s west;
- Deliver alternative water projects supporting quality green open spaces by substituting stormwater/recycled water to demonstrate an integrated, sustainable approach to water;
- Adaptation to a changing climate and to continue supporting more tree projects
- Supporting urban cooling initiatives to mitigate extreme heatwave events;
- Continue to educate and connect and encourage community support and participation;
- Support quality urban design and encourage green infrastructure outcomes.
- Seek funding opportunities through collaborative partnerships
- Advocate for policy and institutional change.
We are all very proud of Greening The West in the urban greening achievements since launching in 2013. We look forward to the next five years in supporting a greener, healthier and healthier, more liveable west.