How Green Cities Are Rethinking Design, Culture, and Community
[ Story ]
Article
In the face of mounting climate urgency, the idea of the “green city” has moved beyond policy jargon into lived reality. These are places where sustainability is a daily practice, woven into design, mobility, food systems, and culture; and where policy is guiding a new way for living in the future.
From architecture to fashion, dining to commuting, dense cities may not be synonymous with our visions of greener living, yet it's precisely such places that can demonstrate to us best how ecological consciousness thrives when it is creative, communal, and integrated into everyday life.
Copenhagen is often the first city invoked in conversations about sustainability, and with good reason. Long before “climate neutrality” became common language, Denmark’s capital was building the framework of a climate-forward city. The government has set an ambitious goal to become the world’s first carbon-neutral capital by 2025, but what is remarkable is the way its citizens embody this ambition.
Cycling, for instance, is second nature. With more bikes than cars, the city has spent decades designing dedicated lanes, bridges, and traffic systems tailored to cyclists. This makes mobility both efficient and human-centred, producing clean air, quieter streets, and a rhythm of life that feels sustainable in every sense.
The promise of the future is tangible when creativity and care shape everyday life.
Copenhagen is also a design capital, home to architecture studios and bio-design labs experimenting with new materials and urban interventions. Perhaps their most astounding civic example of sustainability is Amager Bakke, better known as CopenHill, a waste-to-energy plant that doubles as a public playground. Completed in 2017, it is one of the world’s cleanest incineration plants, capable of converting 440,000 tons of municipal waste annually into electricity and district heating for around 150,000 homes. Unlike the smokestacks most of us picture, its emissions are filtered to near zero, making it a model of how cities can generate energy while minimising pollution.
What makes CopenHill so incredible is its dual identity; the roof of the plant is designed as a public park. Visitors can ski down a 450-metre artificial slope, hike winding trails planted with greenery, climb one of the world’s tallest artificial climbing walls, or simply take in sweeping views of the city and harbour. Instead of hiding industrial infrastructure on the outskirts, Copenhagen has put it in the heart of the city and turned it into a community attraction; overturning the idea that waste should be a hidden, “out-of-sight” endeavour, that the average citizen can simply ignore. Additionally, the community centre is host to an environmental education hub dedicated to keeping visitors and citizens informed on the climate crisis.
The project was designed by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), a Copenhagen-based architecture firm known for its playful approach to sustainability. Ingels calls the building an example of “hedonistic sustainability” — the idea that ecological solutions should feel like enrichment and that the green transition should be fun, social, and even exhilarating. Here, sustainability is so hopeful and aspirational rather than restrictive, proving that a city can lead by showing how beautiful and liveable a green future can be. This not to mention the city’s radical role in championing systemic change within global fashion, through Copenhagen Fashion Week’s rigorous sustainability commitments; as we discussed last year.
If Copenhagen demonstrates the power of design and policy, Ljubljana — Slovenia’s modest capital — illustrates how community-level decisions can transform urban life. In 2007, its centre went car-free, a bold move at the time that has since become a cherished feature of the city. Streets once dominated by traffic now hum with markets, cafés, and cultural activity. The shift sparked a flourishing reuse and refill culture: zero-waste grocery stores, refill stations for everyday products, and city-wide composting schemes have become the norm. Ljubljana was the first capital city in the European Union to join the Zero Waste Europe network, in 2014; with a rigorous waste management strategy that has become a blueprint across the continent.
What makes Ljubljana notable is the accessibility of this culture, and sustainable living is integrated into the fabric of consumption and civic pride; Initiatives such as RCERO Ljubljana, the city’s Regional Waste Management Centre and core of its Zero Waste Strategy, demonstrate how waste reduction and circularity are embedded into everyday life by processing organic waste into compost, capturing biogas for energy, and supporting city-wide reuse and recycling schemes that residents actively participate in. Local design collectives are encouraged by their wider community to transform discarded materials into furniture, art, and fashion, reflecting a city in which circular thinking doubles as cultural expression. Sustainability makes its biggest mark when it is affordable, visible, and tied to a sense of identity – and part of a broader, community practice. We reckon that the imagination and commitment of smaller cities across the planet have so much opportunity to lead the charge.
What makes CopenHill so incredible is its dual identity; the roof of the plant is designed as a public park. Visitors can ski down a 450-metre artificial slope, hike winding trails planted with greenery, climb one of the world’s tallest artificial climbing walls, or simply take in sweeping views of the city and harbour. Instead of hiding industrial infrastructure on the outskirts, Copenhagen has put it in the heart of the city and turned it into a community attraction; overturning the idea that waste should be a hidden, “out-of-sight” endeavour, that the average citizen can simply ignore. Additionally, the community centre is host to an environmental education hub dedicated to keeping visitors and citizens informed on the climate crisis.
The project was designed by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), a Copenhagen-based architecture firm known for its playful approach to sustainability. Ingels calls the building an example of “hedonistic sustainability” — the idea that ecological solutions should feel like enrichment and that the green transition should be fun, social, and even exhilarating. Here, sustainability is so hopeful and aspirational rather than restrictive, proving that a city can lead by showing how beautiful and liveable a green future can be. This not to mention the city’s radical role in championing systemic change within global fashion, through Copenhagen Fashion Week’s rigorous sustainability commitments; as we discussed last year.
If Copenhagen demonstrates the power of design and policy, Ljubljana — Slovenia’s modest capital — illustrates how community-level decisions can transform urban life. In 2007, its centre went car-free, a bold move at the time that has since become a cherished feature of the city. Streets once dominated by traffic now hum with markets, cafés, and cultural activity. The shift sparked a flourishing reuse and refill culture: zero-waste grocery stores, refill stations for everyday products, and city-wide composting schemes have become the norm. Ljubljana was the first capital city in the European Union to join the Zero Waste Europe network, in 2014; with a rigorous waste management strategy that has become a blueprint across the continent.
What makes Ljubljana notable is the accessibility of this culture, and sustainable living is integrated into the fabric of consumption and civic pride; Initiatives such as RCERO Ljubljana, the city’s Regional Waste Management Centre and core of its Zero Waste Strategy, demonstrate how waste reduction and circularity are embedded into everyday life by processing organic waste into compost, capturing biogas for energy, and supporting city-wide reuse and recycling schemes that residents actively participate in. Local design collectives are encouraged by their wider community to transform discarded materials into furniture, art, and fashion, reflecting a city in which circular thinking doubles as cultural expression. Sustainability makes its biggest mark when it is affordable, visible, and tied to a sense of identity – and part of a broader, community practice. We reckon that the imagination and commitment of smaller cities across the planet have so much opportunity to lead the charge.
Green cities remind us that change is already happening in the streets we cycle, the markets we shop in, the clothes we wear, and the communities we create.
On the other side of the world, Melbourne has cultivated a reputation as a creative hub — and increasingly, as a laboratory for sustainable living. Its cultural scene fuses creativity with environmental consciousness in a myriad of ways, leading the global charge of zero-waste restaurants, rooftop gardens, and neighbourhood composting schemes that challenge how food is produced and consumed. Surrounding regenerative farms feed farmers’ markets and community-supported agriculture projects, reconnect its urban citizens with soil, seasonality, and ecological farming practices. Flagship projects such as Melbourne Skyfarm — a rooftop urban farm and café built atop a carpark — show that sustainability need not reject consumption, instead, processes around regenerative food practices need to be transformed through ideas of longevity and creativity. The Skyfarm produces fresh produce for local communities, runs education programmes on urban agriculture, and transforms underused concrete infrastructure into a thriving green space. Melbourne demonstrates how ecological responsibility can be cultural currency, echoing our own ethos of care and protection as a value.
If Copenhagen represents design-forward innovation and Ljubljana a grassroots cultural shift, Seoul offers a vision of high-tech eco-consciousness. As one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world, Seoul has invested heavily in smart city systems that monitor energy use, optimise transport, and reduce emissions through digital infrastructure, and this systemic approach demonstrates how data and efficiency can be powerful tools in addressing the climate challenge.
Seoul’s cultural layer is equally compelling; community repair workshops and makerspaces are providing platforms where citizens learn to mend, repurpose, and invent, ensuring sustainability is both institutional and participatory. Spaces such as the Seoul Upcycling Plaza — the world’s largest upcycling complex — offer workshops, materials banks, and design labs that turn waste into furniture, clothing, and art. The Plaza actively engages local communities, schools, and designers, making circular living a visible, everyday practice rather than a niche activity. The coexistence of cutting-edge innovation and grassroots creativity reflects Seoul’s broader philosophy: sustainability cannot be one-dimensional; it requires both systemic infrastructure and individual imagination.
Together, these four cities paint a picture of sustainability as something deeply contextual and adaptive. Copenhagen demonstrates the elegance of policy aligned with design, Ljubljana the joy of civic-led transformation, Melbourne the fusion of creativity with ecological responsibility, and Seoul the potential of high-tech innovation when grounded in culture. What unites them is the refusal to treat sustainability as separate from everyday life. Instead, it becomes the foundation for how we eat, dress, move, and connect. For us Sneaker LAB, our guiding ethos is centred around care, clean and protect, and all the innovative implications of these principles; these cities are profound examples for us, of a global network engaged in conscious culture. Sustainability is about valuing and nurturing what we already have, it is not a burden or sacrifice; and the promise of the future is so and the promise of the future is so tangible when creativity and care shape everyday life.
Green cities remind us that change is already happening in the streets we cycle, the markets we shop in, the clothes we wear, and the communities we create. All we need to do is look more closely, and step into it ourselves – hope is happening everywhere.
If Copenhagen represents design-forward innovation and Ljubljana a grassroots cultural shift, Seoul offers a vision of high-tech eco-consciousness. As one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world, Seoul has invested heavily in smart city systems that monitor energy use, optimise transport, and reduce emissions through digital infrastructure, and this systemic approach demonstrates how data and efficiency can be powerful tools in addressing the climate challenge.
Seoul’s cultural layer is equally compelling; community repair workshops and makerspaces are providing platforms where citizens learn to mend, repurpose, and invent, ensuring sustainability is both institutional and participatory. Spaces such as the Seoul Upcycling Plaza — the world’s largest upcycling complex — offer workshops, materials banks, and design labs that turn waste into furniture, clothing, and art. The Plaza actively engages local communities, schools, and designers, making circular living a visible, everyday practice rather than a niche activity. The coexistence of cutting-edge innovation and grassroots creativity reflects Seoul’s broader philosophy: sustainability cannot be one-dimensional; it requires both systemic infrastructure and individual imagination.
Together, these four cities paint a picture of sustainability as something deeply contextual and adaptive. Copenhagen demonstrates the elegance of policy aligned with design, Ljubljana the joy of civic-led transformation, Melbourne the fusion of creativity with ecological responsibility, and Seoul the potential of high-tech innovation when grounded in culture. What unites them is the refusal to treat sustainability as separate from everyday life. Instead, it becomes the foundation for how we eat, dress, move, and connect. For us Sneaker LAB, our guiding ethos is centred around care, clean and protect, and all the innovative implications of these principles; these cities are profound examples for us, of a global network engaged in conscious culture. Sustainability is about valuing and nurturing what we already have, it is not a burden or sacrifice; and the promise of the future is so and the promise of the future is so tangible when creativity and care shape everyday life.
Green cities remind us that change is already happening in the streets we cycle, the markets we shop in, the clothes we wear, and the communities we create. All we need to do is look more closely, and step into it ourselves – hope is happening everywhere.
[ Follow ]
