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Spotted: The province of Utrecht in the Netherlands has decorated 316 bus stops with green roofs to support bee pollination. From the 358 bee species in the Netherlands, 56 percent of them are currently in danger of extinction. By turning bus stops into green hubs, the city hopes to encourage pollination and bee reproduction.

The roofs are mainly decorated with sedum plants, as they require low maintenance. Other benefits of green-roof bus stops include storing rainwater, improving air quality and acting as a cooling system during the summer months. The city is also incentivising residents to transform their own rooftops into green-roofs, offering compensation to anyone with a roof over 20 square metres.

This green-roof movement is one of the many initiatives that Utrecht has launched as part of Utrecht 2040, an agenda to create a more sustainable city by 2040. The city is also in the process of replacing buses with electric buses and will be installing solar panels along cycle paths. 

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