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troll through Geneva’s Park La Grange on a nice summer day, and you’ll find an unusual attraction: a flock of sheep grazing on the green lawns. Fluffy and gentle, the creatures nibbling on the grass within a spacious enclosure are an irresistible draw for both children and adults. After all, you just don’t see sheep in urban European locales very often. It’s as if you’ve suddenly stepped out of the busy metropolis and into a bucolic countryside scene. The sheep aren’t there to simply entertain, however; they are official “employees” of the city of Geneva, hired to keep the park’s grass trimmed in summertime, thereby replacing mechanical lawn mowers that are noisy, bulky and, if dieselpowered, smelly, too. The initiative is part of Geneva’s Urbanature program, launched in 2014 to make concrete-covered spaces greener, bring more biodiversity to parks, and add other eco-friendly touches to the urban fabric. Working with Geneva’s Service of Green Spaces, or Service des Espaces Verts (SEVE) in French, Urbanature built a small park on the roof of Geneva’s public hospital and introduced various plants and flowers around the city, as well as having brought the furry ruminants onto Geneva’s lawns. Park La Grange, Geneva’s largest green space of 200,000 square meters, was the first to welcome the natural grass-cutters. Brought from a farm outside the city, the sheep are kept on the park’s meadows, and their enclosures are regularly moved around to keep the land equally pruned.
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More parks will follow this trend in the near future, says SEVE’s head of service Daniel Oertli. “Sheep are truly ecological,” he says, adding that as soon as next summer, other green grounds such as parks and cemeteries will see the animals grazing around. Indeed, with Geneva’s 52 parks occupying 310 hectares, there will be plenty of lawns to mow. Geneva ranks among the world’s top 10 cities for quality of life — and for good reason. Switzerland is known for its environmental innovations, clean air and water technologies, recycling, and waste-to-energy conversions — and Geneva is certainly leading that trend. Unlike many other metropolises reputed to be concrete jungles, 20 percent of Geneva is covered with thriving plants. The water in Lake Geneva is so clean it’s suitable for drinking. Everything from paper to plastic to food leftovers, even used teabags, is either recycled or composted instead of being dumped into landfills or left leeching into the water. Indeed, the city of Geneva spends from US$203,000 to $304,000 a year to keep it clean, airy and verdantly green. And the efforts pay off. Genevans enjoy their big-city living as much as they relish their countryside. The Swiss like to thank the Alps for making them so efficient, innovative and eco-minded. Historically, the harsh Alpine winters and rough mountainous terrains made life and agriculture challenging. But the Swiss learned to treasure nature and gingerly take care of their land so it