Vitoria-Gasteiz, founded in 1181, is second in size (only to Bilbao) in the Basque Country, and has some 240,000 people currently inhabiting this gem in northern Spain

Vitoria-Gasteiz is the capital of the Álava province and of the Basque Country.  The city will hold the title of European Green Capital in 2012.

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Nature Brought into the City

Vitoria-Gasteiz is comprised of concentric circles, with the city itself at centre. The “Green Belt”, a semi-natural green area partially reclaimed from degraded areas, surrounds the centre and brings nature into the city. The third circle is dominated by forestry and mountains.

The city has a high proportion of green public areas, ensuring that the entire population lives within 300m of an open green space. Numerous tangible measures are in place to assist and increase biodiversity and ecosystems services.

Flora and fauna are monitored, habitat fragmentation is reduced wherever possible, and measures have been introduced to decrease light pollution. Besides being recreational areas and natural habitats for plant and animal life, the green areas also have an educational purpose: the community gardens, for example, enable the population to study horticulture at close range.

Managing Water Scarcity

Vitoria-Gasteiz has an ambitious objective of reducing domestic water consumption to below 100 litres per capita per day. Already today, water consumption has decreased steadily from 1999 to 2009. Water-related investments have been made within the context of the Agenda 21 environmental action plan for improved water supply, to reduce losses, work towards sustainable consumption and improve water quality. A citizen’s information office on water consumption and efficiency has also been set up.

Read More
Vitoria-Gasteiz presentation (video)
Vitoria-Gasteiz application
For a short overview of Vitoria-Gasteiz as the European Green Capital 2012, view the winning cities leaflet here (Click language icons below to view)
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To discover Vitoria-Gasteiz in detail, please view our Quality Brochure (Click language icons below to view)
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The Green Book is passed from the outgoing European Green Capital to the next winner each year at the Handover Ceremony. To read the comments from the citizens of Vitoria-Gasteiz about their year as European Green Capital 2012 as written in the Green Book  please click here.

El Libro Verde se pasa todos los años a la ciudad ganadora del premio Capitalidad Verde Europea en la ceremonia de traspaso de poderes.  Para leer algunos de los comentarios de los ciudadanos de Vitoria-Gasteiz recogidos en el Libro Verde durante su año como Capital Verde Europea 2012, por favor haz click aquí.

Photos
Photos from the handover ceremony- 2011
Photos from award ceremony – 2010
You can view all of our photographs on our Flickr account by clicking here
You can view Vitoria-Gasteiz’s official Flickr page here

Related Websites
Vitoria-Gasteiz official website

Related Videos
A number of videos have been produced about the European Green Capital award – the concept, the winners and related subject.
We link to the latest videos here, but the total collection can be found on the EGC YouTube Channel here or via the Vitoria-Gasteiz YouTube Channel here.