Exeter’s Blooming Success: Gold Award Celebrates Sustainable Greening and Partnership
20/10/2025
Exeter has been awarded a prestigious Gold at the South West in Bloom Awards, marking a triumphant return to the City category. This accolade celebrates the city’s exceptional horticultural efforts, delivered through a powerful collaboration between InExeter, Exeter City Council, and the University of Exeter.
Judges praised the city’s rich botanical heritage and its forward-thinking approach to sustainable planting. Highlights included the University’s biodiversity corridors and conservation collections, the historic Northernhay Gardens, and InExeter’s vibrant city centre displays, maintained with rainwater harvesting and composting by local nursery Boyces.
The award also recognises the city’s commitment to climate resilience. St Sidwell’s Point, the UK’s first Passivhaus leisure centre, features air-purifying wildflower turf and ivy screens. Meanwhile, the University’s “No Mow May” and long-grass zones support pollinators and biodiversity research, while the Lower Hoopern Valley project fosters community engagement and ecological restoration.
This achievement reflects Exeter’s pride in place and its shared vision for a greener, healthier, and more sustainable future.
How is this helping Devon reach net-zero?
‘Goal’ CA: Devon Embraces Innovation to Achieve Net-Zero
- ‘Action’ C1: Foster innovation in technologies, institutions, business models, policy design and behaviour to achieve net-zero.
‘Goal’ EA: A Culture of ‘Enoughness’ is Created
- ‘Action’ R2: Support communities to establish waste and resources projects.
‘Goal’ FD: The Potential for Land to Address the Climate and Ecological Emergencies is Being Used to Maximum Effect
- ‘Action’ F15: Design and implement a Trees for Devon initiative.
