Brazilian municipalities roll out sustainability initiatives on World Environment Day

On World Environment Day, the Botucatu municipal environment secretariat launched the "Botucatu Cidade Viva" program to expand green areas, improve public spaces and involve residents in tree‑planting and environmental education. The initiative is coordinated by Environment Secretary Bianca Picado Gonçalves and Environmental Education Director Juliane Fumes Bazzo, aiming to strengthen sustainability awareness and quality of life in the city.

At the same time, Patrícia Iglecias, superintendant of Environmental Management at the University of São Paulo (USP), highlighted the need for governance tools to transform sustainability commitments into measurable results. She cited a recent UN General Assembly resolution and introduced the UI GreenCityMetric, an indicator system modeled on the UI GreenMetric university rankings, to assess municipal sustainability across water, waste, energy, mobility, and green space. USP plans to support São Paulo municipalities in adopting the metric and building technical capacity for data collection and policy planning.