Reducing your ecological footprint is great, unless you can't have fun or have to go out of your way to achieve certain things, right? The City of Ghent is constantly thinking about sustainable initiatives that are fun and easy. Greening in comfort: it's the best of both worlds!
The Ghent Light Plan is an initiative that provides the city with artistic lighting each night. A number of monuments, squares and architectural accents are lit in such a way that you can discover the most enchanting side of the city. The Light Plan pays a lot of attention to saving energy: lighting is selective, low-energy lamps are used, etc. Every evening until midnight, you can discover (parts of) the mapped illuminated walk, after which the city switches back to functional lighting.
Living in the city is only fun if you can breathe freely, isn’t it? That means there has to be peace and quiet, but also greenery. And that greenery takes all sorts of forms in Ghent: from a lush façade garden or green roof (even on the bus shelters!), to a small street garden and a large green pole in the city’s outskirts. All these smaller and larger green spots ensure that you don’t have to miss anything in the city.
Ghent has long boasted Europe's largest low-traffic city centre, but the City wanted to go the extra mile to improve the air quality. That is why a low emission zone or LEZ was implemented in 2020. Since then, polluting cars have not been allowed within the city’s ring road. In the city centre, every resident and visitor now benefits from better air quality and that is no luxury but a necessity.
A car-free city centre means, almost by definition, that you travel ecologically in Ghent. There are the familiar buses and trams, but also more original means of transport such as electric boats and e-scooters. If you come to Ghent by car, you can easily park it at a P&R and take a tram or bus to the city centre. And residents can drive (more) ecologically as well, thanks to a wide range of car-sharing vehicles, shared bikes, you name it.
