In early 2015, the project Operatie Steenbreek was established as a result of the cooperation between multiple organisations. It is a national partnership between green knowledge institutes, businesses, governments and citizens. The aim is to counteract the current trend of paving residential gardens and thereby improving the urban living environment, in particular trying to make citizens enthusiastic for greening their garden. The attention is mainly on the negative effects of paving, such as less 1 and the pressure on the sewage system during cloudbursts. At the beginning of the project, five cities were chosen that deliver this message. These cities were Leeuwarden, Groningen, Den Haag, Amersfoort and Eindhoven. Currently, the project is converted to a foundation and two other cities also joined: Maastricht and Leiderdorp. Each other municipality can implements Operatie Steenbreek and supports its citizens in its own way or they can use the methodology to greening gardens offered by Operatie Steenbreek. The project is financed by the municipalities. Other stakeholders are knowledge institutions, water authorities, foundations, companies like garden centres, citizens, ecologists and city planners. The national paroject was initiated by Alterra, a part of the Wageningen University, and the University of Groningen. Operatie Steenbreek offers several activities to cities. First is the so-called garden ambassadors, people who can offer information about how to make your garden more natural and animal friendly. Secondly, they offer a course on garden reservations, in which members learn about nature friendly gardening. The last is the BIMBY method, which stands for ‘1 In My Backyard’, in which citizens are guided by collecting information about making their gardens more natural and animal friendly. The different cities all have their own strategy to promote Operatie Steenbreek among their citizens and to make them aware of their goal.