When a city breathes, it can be seen (and measured)
Urban greenery isn't just decoration; it's an infrastructure that shapes the quality of life, climate resilience, and even how a community recognizes itself. The 26th edition of the national "City for Green" Award returns to Myplant & Garden (Milan) on February 20, 2026. Terra Solida, an industry sponsor and longtime partner of the initiative, is supporting an event that recognizes concrete projects, virtuous maintenance, and civic volunteerism. It showcases, without rhetoric, the Italy that truly plants, cares, and regenerates.
When a city breathes, it can be seen (and measured)
Urban greenery isn't just decoration; it's an infrastructure that shapes the quality of life, climate resilience, and even how a community recognizes itself. The 26th edition of the national "City for Green" Award returns to Myplant & Garden (Milan) on February 20, 2026. Terra Solida, an industry sponsor and longtime partner of the initiative, is supporting an event that recognizes concrete projects, virtuous maintenance, and civic volunteerism. It showcases, without rhetoric, the Italy that truly plants, cares, and regenerates.
An award that photographs cities, not shop windows
There are awards that resemble a medal hanging on an institution's chest, beautiful to look at and easy to forget. And then there are awards that work like an X-ray, revealing bones, fractures, reconstructions (and even a few hastily placed prosthetics, because budgets don't wait). "The City for Green," now in its 26th edition, belongs to the second category: over the years, it has captured different ways of managing urban greenery, recording a fact that those working in the field know all too well: financial resources are increasingly difficult to come by, and procurement rules change, often more rapidly than public institutions can adapt.
This snapshot, however, isn't limited to municipalities. The Award has also expanded to include public entities, private public-purpose facilities, and volunteer associations, because caring for green spaces has become a collective responsibility, and because today, cities are governed beyond the town hall, within a framework of shared competencies and responsibilities.
Green as infrastructure, not as a framework
The 2026 edition puts in writing a paradigm shift that, if taken seriously, will transform the way we look at a flowerbed, a row of trees, a riverside park. Greenery is not seen as embellishment, but as strategic infrastructure for quality of life, biodiversity, and climate change adaptation, with attention to soil permeability, water management, and social spaces (three words that, together, tell a city story better than many press conferences).
This is a crucial point, because it shifts the discussion from taste to effectiveness, from "beauty" to function. It's no longer just "how green it is," but how well that greenery can withstand the impact of heat, extreme rainfall, waterproof asphalt, and the social isolation that saps neighborhood life. In this sense, the Award is also a tool for discussion between administrations, organizations, and practitioners, a place where best practices become replicable, therefore political, and therefore contagious (in a good sense).
Where and when, because logistics is part of the message
The award ceremony will be held on Friday 20 February 2026 , from 9.30 am to 13.00 pm , as part of Myplant & Garden , at Fiera Milano Rho (Conference Room, Pavilion 20 A40).
It's not a small detail: Myplant & Garden is a professional trade fair for horticulture, gardening, and landscaping, a context where greenery is seen as a supply chain (technique, materials, skills, maintenance, design), not as a brochure photograph.
Program, between technique and culture (and a topic that deserves attention)
The program concentrates in a few hours three levels that rarely communicate so well: institutional, technical and cultural (in the concrete sense of the word, that is, what affects daily choices).
The opening session at 9:30 a.m. will feature presentations by Graziella Zaini (Il Verde Editoriale, ACER magazine), Valeria Randazzo (Myplant & Garden), Maria Lodovica Gullino (weTree, Agroinnova, University of Turin), Barbara Negroni (CONAF), Massimo Centemero (Italian Composters Consortium), and Giulio Franceschi (Andreas Stihl, main sponsor).
At 10.15 am , a technical-cultural in-depth discussion is planned on a topic whose title alone declares its ambition: “From mitigation to regeneration: Urban Carbon Farming practices for more resilient and liveable cities” , curated by Massimo Centemero (CIC).
Then, from 10.40 am , the awards ceremony will take place, with the participation of representatives of the sponsoring companies, including Terra Solida.
The categories, that is, the four ways to do green well
The Award is structured into four categories: “Urban greenery” , “Greenery maintenance” , “Best volunteer initiative for the management of urban green spaces” and “The Resilient City”.
- urban green: interventions ranging from biodiversity protection to environmental culture (urban and educational gardens), to therapeutic greenery, historic gardens, green roofs, and the expansion of green spaces with new parks and tree-lined avenues.
- Green maintenance (reserved for Municipalities): quality of management, including through computerization of the service and Green Public Procurement criteria.
- Volunteering: initiatives recognized as a public service of redevelopment and maintenance, therefore as organized care of the city.
- The Resilient City: climate adaptation, with reference to urban greenery, soil permeability, water management and social spaces.
Who's being honored in 2026 (and what these names tell us)
The winners of the 26th edition, in alphabetical order, include (among others) Capralba, Carpi, Celle Ligure, Chivasso, Fermo, Ferrara, Grosseto, Merano, Nocera Inferiore, Ponteranica, Reggio Calabria, Sestu, Venaria Reale, Vercelli, in addition to associations and institutions such as the KilometroVerdeParma Consortium, the Friends of Trivulzio Foundation andUniversity of Milan.
Some projects focus on reforestation and recovery after extreme weather events, others on paving and drainage solutions, still others on healing gardens and the redevelopment of historic parks. There's a common thread: caring for greenery as a common good, participation, nature-based solutions, sustainability (environmental and economic), and the ability to restore function to degraded spaces, with a focus on communication and outreach.
In other words, this edition depicts an Italy that doesn't just "plant," but tries to manage complexity—soil, water, heat, community, maintenance, and regulations. And the fact that it does so through concrete projects is the true value of the Prize.
The role of sponsors (and why it makes sense for Terra Solida to be there)
During the award ceremony, the prizes are also awarded in the presence of representatives of the sponsoring companies, including Terra Solida , along with other industry sponsors.
For Terra Solida, a longtime partner of the initiative, this sponsorship isn't just a decorative gesture. It's a way to stay within an ecosystem where urban greenery is treated as infrastructure, and therefore a technical, maintenance, and economic responsibility. And when a sector stops being a "theme" and becomes a "system," a stable presence matters more than hype, because it builds continuity, relationships, and the exchange of best practices.
Why talk about it before the ceremony?
A pre-event article serves a simple yet rare purpose: it puts on the agenda what usually remains in the background. Urban greenery, when it works, seems natural (almost inevitable). When it's missing, it becomes immediately apparent, and often too late. Talking about the Award beforehand means preparing the audience, helping to identify projects that deserve attention, and inviting professionals, administrators, and interested citizens to consider the ceremony not as a ritual, but as a moment of discussion.
The appointment is therefore set: February 20, 2026 , Myplant & Garden, Milan.
