Now Vilnius authorities want to use these green credentials to boost their global economic competitiveness too.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the biggest challenges we need to fight is the [lack of] awareness of Lithuania and of Vilnius,\u201d says Mangirdas Sapranauskas, a senior department head at the city\u2019s development agency, Go Vilnius<\/a>, which oversees foreign direct investment (FDI) and international talent attraction. \u201cThe Green Capital title put us on the map.\u201d<\/p>\n Foreigners now make up over 12% of Vilnius\u2019 population, with global companies including Moody\u2019s<\/a>, Nasdaq<\/a>, and Thermo Fisher<\/a> having offices there, and the city\u2019s FDI strategy has won international plaudits<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yet it was only after hearing from executives who chose to relocate there that Sapranauskas realized how impressed they were by how green Vilnius is\u2014nearly everyone lives within 300 meters of parks or other green spaces; there\u2019s even a forest, Vingis Park, within walking distance of its Parliament.<\/p>\n Vilnius\u2019s chief sustainability officer, Anton Nikitin, says that being green improves quality of life in multiple ways. Indeed, while recognizing the importance of clean air and water, access to nature, biodiversity and electric public transportation, his definition of sustainability goes much further.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to become more people-oriented, and that\u2019s the very important social part of sustainability,\u201d Nikitin says. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to be green because we\u2019re green; we want to be green because we want our city to be a very livable city, a very safe city, a very resilient city.\u201d<\/p>\n This citizen-first approach extends to the country\u2019s advanced digitalization of public and private services, which 77% of Lithuanians<\/a> believe is making their lives easier. Vilnius also actively encourages people to engage with policy debates and to participate in civic life through citizen assemblies.<\/p>\n A burgeoning startup scene<\/p>\n Are sustainability and quality of life competitive advantages for a city looking to attract talent and investment?<\/p>\n They certainly don\u2019t seem to hurt. Vilnius is the second-fastest riser on the IMD smart cities index<\/a>, and Dealroom.co<\/a> gives its tech ecosystem special mention for its per capita venture capital, enterprise value creation, and unicorn numbers (in absolute terms, the Dutch research firm ranks Vilnius 113th globally<\/a>).<\/p>\n The city\u2019s star scale-ups include Nord Security, the $3 billion Lithuanian company behind Nord VPN<\/a>, and second-hand marketplace Vinted\u2014which has now expanded across Europe and recently unlocked a \u20ac5 billion ($5.9 billion) valuation in a secondary share sale<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to become more people-oriented, and that\u2019s the very important social part of sustainability\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Vilnius\u2019s chief sustainability officer, Anton Nikitin<\/p>\n They aren\u2019t alone. No fewer than twenty Vinted alumni have already founded new startups<\/a>, to the delight of Vinted CEO Thomas Plantenga, while Nord\u2019s parent company, venture builder and investor Tesonet<\/a>, is the biggest backer of vibrant local tech complex Cyber City<\/a>. Aptly enough, tenants there include nexos.ai<\/a>\u2014the start-up launched earlier this year<\/a> by Nord cofounders Tomas Okmanas<\/a> and Eimantas Sabaliauskas.<\/p>\n Having bootstrapped businesses \u201cfrom Vilnius to the world,\u201d Okmanas is a self-described advocate of this \u201csuper safe and green city\u201d with \u201cgreat talent\u201d that can also speak English. \u201cI believe being in Lithuania is really an advantage,\u201d says the entrepreneur. \u201cYou cannot choose your neighbors but apart from that, it\u2019s just a fantastic place to live.\u201d<\/p>\n Cyber City<\/p>\n It\u2019s a common theme among the city\u2019s high-growth firms\u2014both those starting out and those that have relocated to Vilnius.<\/p>\n \u201cPreviously the main questions [for companies looking to relocate] were about taxes, salaries, and office costs. Now two additional criteria are just as important: talent attraction and quality of life. Companies want their people to feel good, surrounded by greenery, a great city atmosphere, and places where natural networking happens,\u201d says Darius \u017dakaitis, a founder at Tech Zity<\/a>.<\/p>\n Known for its startup hubs, Tech Zity is currently transforming an industrial area of Vilnius with almost no greenery into a well-balanced $110 million tech campus<\/a> due to open in 2026. \u201cWe\u2019re planning four large courtyards as outdoor extensions of the offices. There will be spaces for working, events, or just walking around\u2014like a park owned by the community. We see greenery not as decoration but as infrastructure for productivity and well-being,\u201d \u017dakaitis says.<\/p>\n What of larger companies? Lithuania offers some concessions to strategic investors, but as a European Union member, it faces restrictions on preferential tax incentives for foreign firms. According to Sapranauskas, that is where \u201csoft things come into play\u201d\u2014whether environmental policy and digital public services or practical support like International House Vilnius<\/a>, which helps newcomers feel at home.<\/p>\n \u201cPreviously the main questions [for companies looking to relocate] were about taxes, salaries, and office costs. Now two additional criteria are just as important: talent attraction and quality of life\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Darius \u017dakaitis, a founder at Tech Zity<\/a><\/p>\n The availability of talent is a major consideration. While Vilnius is no longer necessarily cheap in that regard\u2014the average monthly salary tripled<\/a> from \u20ac797 in 2014 to \u20ac2,536 in 2024, driven by strength in fintech, cybersecurity, and life sciences\u2014it is still competitive, in part because of its desirability as a place to live.<\/p>\n \u201cThat livability factor genuinely helps the city compete for international talent, especially younger generations who want sustainability to be part of their everyday lifestyle,\u201d says Vlada Musvydait\u0117-Vil\u010diausk\u0117, founder of Lithuanian walking app Walk15<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now boasting 1.1 million users, its platform also enables more than 2,000 companies including DHL, Nestl\u00e9 and Novo Nordisk<\/a> to encourage employees to walk more and exchange steps for rewards. These clients increasingly point out that their teams value not just the office environment but the environment around it, Musvydait\u0117-Vil\u010diausk\u0117 says, favoring cities like Vilnius, which is also rapidly expanding<\/a> its cycle path infrastructure.<\/p>\n Musvydait\u0117-Vil\u010diausk\u0117 spends half of her time in Berlin, and also praises the German city for its \u201cscale, diversity, and international vibe, which make it attractive for global talent.\u201d<\/p>\n But \u201cif Berlin offers breadth, Vilnius offers balance\u201d\u2014with the culture, international community and burgeoning tech scene of a major European capital, but greener, easier to get around and \u201cwithout the stress of a much bigger city,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Being a green and pleasant place to live certainly isn\u2019t necessary or sufficient for economic competitiveness, but Vilnius\u2019s experience shows that at the very least it helps. It also shows that smaller cities and countries can find a way to compete with major metropolises and economic powerhouses if they lean into their strengths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vilnius doesn\u2019t need Olympic fanfare to make its waters swimmable. While Paris spent billions cleaning up the Seine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[93],"tags":[3088,3089,171,3090,2140,170],"class_list":["post-2841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vilnius","tag-economic-growth","tag-investors","tag-lithuania","tag-start-up","tag-sustainability","tag-vilnius"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Cyber_City_9-e1761825901561.jpg\"\/)
Local tech complex Cyber City.<\/p>\n