Via Verde creates, installs and maintains vertical gardens to transform urban infrastructure into green spaces that generate oxygen, absorb carbon dioxide, improve air quality, reduce urban heat islands and provide other social/psychological benefits to highly populated cities. Architect Fernando Ortiz Monasterio founded Via Verde in 2012, transforming more than 1,000 concrete columns into more than 60,000 square metres of vertical gardens that support Mexico City’s beltway. Via Verde can provide this urban transformation at no cost to the city or its inhabitants through funding provided by dedicating a portion of the transformed area to commercial sponsorship and publicity.