Partner highlight: green cities one panel at a time

Do you remember the last time you saw a house sparrow (huismus in Dutch) in the cities in the Netherlands? In places like Rotterdam and The Hague this once common bird has almost fully disappeared. The disappearance of this and many other birds from our cities is just one of many developments that the insufficient greenery in Dutch cities causes. Paired with housing shortage and ever-growing demands for space, this is a complex issue that needs to be tackled urgently if we want to preserve biodiversity & improve water and air quality as well as our well-being.

One of our partners, Leafy, and its founder Naud van der Padt are on a mission to contribute to the regenerative cities challenge with their work on green urban facades. They teamed up with our trainee team from Digital Transformation Intensive Programme to address the effects both the grey and green facades have and quantify them in a comprehensive way.

Naud, could you please tell us a bit about the background of this project?

I founded the company in 2021 during my master’s degree at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. There, I had a course on Circular Economy and had to think of a product or a service that could positively contribute to the world. The study also coincided with my move to the centre of Amsterdam. This was a big transition for me since I’m originally from a Dutch countryside with loads of farms, forests and a small tight community. Needless to say, the centre of Amsterdam is not like that and it made me feel a bit out of place in the capital.

So, I decided to see how I could implement more greenery in inner cities. After lots of research and careful consideration, I decided to focus on building facades and how they can aid in making cities more sustainable. Currently, they carry mostly an aesthetic function without any other purpose, thus the idea of a bio-based modular facade panel rooted in hydroponic gardening came to life to combine my ambition and available resources. At the moment, besides a lot of testing, we also look into how the panel works and its benefits. After all, we are not selling a green facade panel itself, but the effects it can accomplish.

How did you get to work with DSS in the first place?

I first heard about DSS at a fair in Barcelona, which is called Smart City Expo. There I came across a colleague of yours who saw the potential in our collaboration. Leafy is an early-stage startup in the development phase, so it took some time to find the right approach and resources. But one year later, we finally found a way to do that.

What’s the focus of the trainee project within your larger ambition?

That’s a good question. As mentioned before, Leafy is busy with 2 things: the development of the panel and the assessment of its effects.
With the trainees, we want to quantify the effects our panels might have on biodiversity, social & mental well-being, heat stress, water storage, CO2 reduction…There are so many. It’s fascinating to think how with this number of effects the greenery has on our environment we don’t have enough plants in our cities.

Our goal is to show these effects in a digital way, in sort of a dashboard that can showcase the difference between the grey and the green facades. So grey is the invasive materials and green is the bio-based and plants. The trainees are benchmarking & measuring now the effects of what concrete does for an inner city, what steel does for the inner city, its inhabitants and animals etc. and then translate the results into such a dashboard.

What would be an ideal outcome for this project?

I would really like to be able to showcase in a very simplistic way the invasive effects of the cities we’re already living in while comparing the effects of green areas. One of my biggest influences, David Attenborough, wrote in his book a testimony that was an inspiration for me when I started Leafy. In this testimony, he talks about how cities and forests can coexist with each other. More than that, how cities have more surfaces to grow the forests due to the tall buildings we’re surrounded with. This struck me and I started dreaming of turning all facades green. I know it’s impossible but with this company, the next steps will be to not only focus on facades but also the roofs and interiors.

Say you have a building or a neighbourhood, and we can green it for you in the most efficient, sustainable way possible. That is our that is our main purpose.

In 2025, we start a pilot in Carnisse neighborhood in Rotterdam South, where projects like this are much more needed than in the inner city of Rotterdam. This is because while we focus on biodiversity and climate adaptivity etc., there’s a big social component to such projects.

Therefore, if we could green those areas and we could teach kids something about biodiversity, about flora and fauna, that would be my ideal dream. And it’s really easy because you have a vertical wall and you can just stand beside it and just talk about the wall and the plants and so on. So, while I have many ambitions for the company, it would be great if we could combine a social component to it as well and teach about the importance of nature for all of us.

Was there anything surprising when you stepped into working with DSS?

I always find it interesting how people work. I have personally experienced working in an international environment, so it’s not new to me. All the trainees here are from different areas of the world and bring their own unique perspectives and habits. But despite their differences, they have to come together to follow the same process and find a way to work together in a short period of time. So, while not necessarily surprising, it is interesting to see how such dynamics work. I also really appreciate their new perspectives and how they broaden our vision.

Finally, I just want to quickly give a shoutout to DSS as well. You gave us the opportunity to participate in this programme, which we are really grateful for. We love to be in this pool of talent and energy. We are very happy with our collaboration and the people involved.

Final remarks

The trainee project is currently mid-way and will be finalised by the end of January. You can follow their progress via the project page on DSS’ website.

Do you seek to implement similar programmes or have an idea related to one of the SDGs? Get in touch via partnerships-dss@hva.nl to explore potential collaborations!