Situated in the heart of Poland and Europe, the City of Łódź is one of Poland’s major cities and located on the intersection of major communication routes. It is the fourth largest Polish city in terms of both population and area. With a systematically expanding transport system (construction of new roads and modernisation of railway infrastructure), this former Polish industrial centre is constantly growing.
In addition to its prime location and robust transportation network, Łódź offers access to a competitive labor market alongside being one of Poland's prominent academic hubs, boasting top-tier universities and colleges with a thriving student community.
A particular challenge that Łódź faces is the introduction of green areas in the historic city centre to counteract climate change and eliminate urban heat islands, increase water retention, and thus improve the quality of life of its inhabitants.
In cooperation with various groups of stakeholders, the City of Łódź takes numerous measures to counteract the negative effects of climate change. These measures can be categorised into the following core areas: air protection, water retention, development of green areas and preservation of biodiversity, and environmental education.
For several years, the City of Łódź has focused its attention on modernising and improving the energy efficiency of buildings, and has been running a program of subsidies aimed to replace old solid-fuel stoves with new, efficient, and environmentally friendly installations. Recently, due to the current crisis, the city has been reducing the energy consumption of the municipal lighting system and gradually replacing lighting fixtures in public spaces with energy-efficient (LED) ones, as well as installing photovoltaic systems on public buildings.
Another major challenge is water management. The city lies in a watershed area and is at risk of desertification. Therefore, when conducting investment projects, the city puts great emphasis on replacing existing concrete surfaces with water-permeable surfaces.
Łódź’ green areas are continuously being developed. First of all, attention is payed to the need to “unseal” downtown buildings with greenery and eliminate urban heat islands by introducing vegetation where there has been none or little of it so far.
Environmental education must certainly be mentioned as it is a very important element of the Łódź’ pro-climate measures. The city conducts an innovative pilot programme for environmental education in Łódź schools. It involves determination of a relevant curriculum and training for a group of teachers so that they can deliver classes on this issue.
As part of the environmental education of residents, the city also runs a municipal Ecoportal.
“We all observe climate change, which increasingly affects our lives. We cannot turn our eyes away from problems that, if left unsolved, will drastically reduce the standard of living and safety of our children and grandchildren. Therefore, together we must create a new, green world for them. Local leaders have an extremely important role to play in this task. It is largely up to good hosts: mayors and councillors whether we will be able to implement plans for a better future for ourselves and the next generations.
An extremely important element of the planned changes is the exchange of thoughts, experiences and good practices of all those who influence the world around us. Thinking about building such synergy, we joined ICLEI, the largest family of local governments from around the world.”
Hanna Zdanowska, Mayor of the City of Łódź
The City of Łódź became an ICLEI Member in December 2022. The city currently participates in two ICLEI projects together with other Members: Urban Transitions Mission Centre and Fair Local Green Deals.
