Going local to drive Rotterdam’s greening agenda

Oud Mathenesse was once a thriving close-knit community structured around working life in the harbour, in Rotterdam’s western outskirts. Like many neighbourhoods, the decline of old industry coincided with a downturn in local fortunes. Today 60% of residents are in the lowest income group, even though the community spirit remains strong.

Like much of Rotterdam, Oud Mathenesse is a diverse district comprising 7,700 people and more than 90 languages. Notably, a higher-than-average proportion of these (20%) are Eastern European, often short-term migrant workers engaged in the construction or nearby agri-food sectors. Consequently, the turnover of population - at 15% per annum - is higher than the city average, suggesting that not all newcomers put down roots. 

Putting down roots in Oud Mathenesse isn’t only hard for people. It’s also difficult for plant life, as 74% of the surface area is paved. Added to this, the neighbourhood has limited tree cover, creating a classic heat island effect in the warmer months. A Delft University heat map indicates that by 2050 neighbourhood temperatures will rise dramatically without significant intervention. Alongside this, the low-lying gardens are bad news for a place below sea level with increasing amounts of rain and flash flooding. 

GWB’s main experimental pillar rehabilitates private land into effective green infrastructure. This will require a radical shift in perceptions of responsibility, the activation of latent resources and collective neighbourhood action.

Mobilising private land is central to greening Oud Mathenesse because it accounts for 60% of the neighbourhood footprint. Apart from a few small local parks, most of the land is in gardens, often communal, attached to the traditional mid-level apartment blocks, 80% of which were built before 1968. Sometimes, these gardens - shaped as long strips between the housing blocks - are individually owned, usually by the ground floor apartments. Otherwise, they are communally owned by the block residents.

The project’s greening ambitions are dependent on getting agreement from the Homeowner Associations, to which all property owners belong. These associations come in different sizes, and their buy in will be essential to any environmental improvements to the private gardens. Add to this the fact that a 44% of dwellings are owned and rented out by private landlords (a proportion of whom are absentees living outside the city) and the scale of the challenge becomes even clearer. 

So how will Rotterdam go about transforming a neighbourhood faced with such complex barriers?

Greening Oud Mathenesse is the project’s first pillar, with community mobilisation at the heart of the approach. The initial idea for the project came from the neighbourhood’s plan - requested each year by City Hall - so as the suggestion started with citizens, there is an aspiration to retain this bottom-up dimension. In practice this means having local people and organisations making decisions and shaping the implementation of the project. 

From the start, there is a strong local presence, with residents embedded in the governance structure and the active involvement of grassroots organisations. Building momentum and attracting a mass of locals is a critical requirement and a host of events and activities are scheduled - kicking off with a spring festival, to attract locals. Stimulating local curiosity can also play a key part here, for example through a pop-up forest that will be deployed by the University of Delft. 

Trusted connections will be one of the keys to success when engaging the local community. It’s important to see core delivery partners which are rooted in Oud Mathenesse, staffed by familiar faces that locals will know and recognise. Mathenesse aan de Maas is one of these, fronted by two energetic local women who bring deep local knowledge and highly relevant neighbourhood experience. Another is the Food Garden (Voedseltuin) which through the new Green Hub will co-design greening and food events, lend gardening tools and boost locals’ greening skills. 

Creating incentives will also be an important key to success. GWB - or Wijk in Bloei to use its new Dutch name - is developing a menu of rewards to attract and encourage local participants. The most significant of these is finance to raise the level of privately owned gardens. As there is no budget for this in the public works programme raising the sewers and local roads, residents are expected to meet these costs themselves. Residential blocks participating in GWB will have them met as part of the greening efforts.

The second pillar is socioeconomic improvements and there will be a strong focus on raising the skills and employability levels of neighbourhood residents. The Learning Station (Leerstation), opening in September 2025, will have a vital role to play here. It will equip residents with new skills and knowledge not only about greening and the growing range of related work opportunities, but also for key industry sectors like hospitality. They will also help provide volunteering pathways, and those who take part - or who do other good green city deeds - will be rewarded with Green Stamps that can be traded for other public benefits.

Sustainability is at the core of Greening without Borders, but that goes beyond the environment. The third, and perhaps most ambitious and innovative, of GWB’s three pillars focuses on financial sustainability. The idea is to design, test and implement a financial instrument that will provide a local Green Fund, shaped by local needs and managed at the local level, to ensure the legacy and continuity of the project. Serendipity, are leading on this aspect of the project, which will draw upon the experience of other approaches, including Rotterdam’s previous innovations relating to social return on investment and financial instruments.  

It has been a busy period in Oud Mathenesse these past months and the momentum will step up several gears in the coming period as GWB gets fully operational. The Green Hub is being finalised, the Learning Space opens shortly while the outreach and engagement activity is already well under way. A series of community events – including a local bioblitz and the spring festival in May – are helping get the message out, stimulating interest and galvanising local organisations. An important next step – in terms of the project’s visibility – will be securing those first HOA Agreements permitting greening activity in private gardens. Quick wins will be important here, in terms of demonstrating the art of the possible, and helping build a critical mass of resident participation.

In the autumn, Rotterdam will host its three transfer partners (Tallin, Viladecans and Thessaloniki) who will be able to see at first hand the scale and energy of this exciting innovation initiative. And, of course, each of them will bring their own knowledge and experience to contribute to GWB’s activities. 

So, although the challenges are complex, there is a sense of energy and optimism locally and a belief that, after feeling left behind for so long, the time for Oud Mathenesse has (finally) come.