Mexico City's air pollution solution: Via Verde Vertical Gardens

Once labelled the world's dirtiest city by the UN in 1992, Mexico City has been making strides towards a greener future.

By Ground report 28 Aug 2023

New Update

Mexico City's air pollution solution: Via Verde Vertical Gardens

Once labelled the world's dirtiest city by the UN in 1992, Mexico City has been making strides towards a greener future. Over the past 20 years, initiatives like "No-Drive Days" and a robust bike-sharing system have been introduced.

However, despite these efforts, the city still ranks among the top 40 most polluted globally. Responding to citizens' demands for more impactful change, a visionary project called Via Verde has emerged. Born from an 80,000-signature-strong Change.org petition in 2016, Via Verde transforms highway pillars into vertical gardens, giving Mexico City a lush makeover.

publive-image — Smog and mountains in Mexico City by fotoreisebericht.de via Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The Via Verde project has transformed Mexico City's grey into green by constructing vertical gardens on columns along the Periférico highway, which encircles the central city. Countless videos in the local and international media have featured the photogenic plants that climb up the freeway barriers, often referencing them as a symbol of the polluted city's shifting priorities.

Mexico City's 'Via Verde' project is turning motorway pillars green to combat air pollution and improve the city's landscape. Over 60,000 m2 of vertical gardens will cover 1,000 pillars along a 27 km stretch. Funded by donors and local government, this initiative in collaboration with VERDEVERTICAL makes Mexico City an international model.

Turning Concrete into Gardens

The 27-kilometer project, once completed, will filter 27,000 tons of harmful gas, provide clean oxygen for 25,000 citizens per year, and capture 11,000 pounds of dust. However, the more significant impact on morale may arise from transforming grey columns into green spaces, as research suggests that exposure to green spaces can restore mental well-being.

Mexico City tops The TomTom Traffic Index as the most congested large city in the world, and converting the columns into greenspaces has the potential to reduce stress levels among commuters who frequently utilize the highway.

Via Verde achieved the feat of beautifying 600,000 square feet of concrete pillar by developing a felt fabricated from plastic bottles that match the density of soil and sewing it by local inmates as social rehabilitation. The plants may not need soil, but they will require water.

Vía Verde: a case study

Vía Verde was born from an idea on the internet. Architect Fernando Ortiz Monasterio started it after asking the government for help online in 2016. More than 75,000 people agreed, and now Vía Verde is real - it's gardens on over 1,000 concrete columns in Mexico City. The goal is to add green to a city that needs it. The gardens make fresh air, stop bad air, and clean out harmful metals. They also help with noise and keep things cooler. The plants are chosen to be different, and they're watered with rain and reused water.

Besides helping the environment, Vía Verde uses numbers from each column to look after the gardens. They've used old things to build it when they could, and the project gave jobs to many people, even those in jail. But some people don't think the gardens help as much as they should. They think it's more about making the city look nice than solving the traffic problem.

We're still not sure how much the gardens will help with pollution, but Vía Verde shows that people can make big changes. It's also part of the smart city idea, where technology helps fix problems. They had the first LATAM Smart City Awards in 2018, which was a way to praise cities that are using technology to do good things. They care about making things better for everyone. With so many smart and new ways to solve problems, we'll have to wait and see how Mexico City's skies change in the future.