Green Terrace – Sustainable urban Agriculture and Composting in Usme, Bogota Colombia

Self-grown vertical vegetable garden in a squatted neighbourhood

Description of the Project

The Green Terrace project is being developed in the locality of Usme, Bogotá, Colombia. The Green Terrace offers spaces for communities to strengthen their capacities under the principle of learning-by-doing to properly separate waste in their homes, transform organic waste into fertilizers, and implement community and family urban gardens. The Green Terrace – Colombia is a sustainable and impact-driven project that not only contributes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by avoiding organic waste disposal in landfills, but also promotes food security through organic gardens, and strengthens social cohesion in communities.

As part of the solid waste management programme of Skat Foundation, the project “Green Terrace Colombia” aims to strengthen the capacities of communities to implement appropriate practices in sustainable solid waste management (SWM). Skat Foundation with the cooperation and local coordination of the Parish of San Marcelino Champagnat and the Prosofi Social Program of the Javeriana University has supported more than 200 families in Usme, Bogota, to implement urban agriculture and composting strategies, through trainings, workshops, technical visits, as well as by promoting the implementation of urban gardens and the production of organic fertilisers from waste. The project helps to improve the food security of the families involved, to reduce the environmental impacts of organic waste disposed in the city’s sanitary landfill, and to strengthen the social cohesion of the communities. Through the project, Skat Foundation covers five of the 17 of SDGs: 1, 2, 3, 6, and 12.