Ghent has reaffirmed its leadership in urban greening by finishing on top in the Flemish Tile‑Tossing Championship, an annual competition encouraging cities and municipalities to replace paved surfaces with vegetation.
Together, Ghent residents and the City delivered an impressive result by turning paved space back into green. Nearly 335,000 tiles were removed, creating over 30,000 m² of new green space. This puts Ghent at the top in Flanders in absolute numbers. The city of Leuven removed the most tiles per resident.
Ghent stood out for its strong resident engagement thanks to simple, low-threshold action such as Planting with Neighbours (a day when neighbours come together to create small gardens along their façades) and the rubble‑bag initiative (residents could request free rubble bags and have their removed paving stones collected). The result: a surge in front gardens and new green areas across neighbourhoods.
Meanwhile, the City carried out large‑scale depaving projects on squares, playgrounds and other public spaces. The Vlaamse Landmaatschappij (Flemish Land Agency) also contributed significantly to the overall total by removing more than 18,000 m² of paving in the northern part of the city.
Ghent’s strong performance underscores its ongoing commitment to tackling over‑paving and improving climate resilience across the city.
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