Edinburgh faces a combination of greenspace challenges including austerity, rapid urbanisation, and climate change; at the same time the city showcases innovative responses through community empowerment, partnership working, and funding mechanisms (e.g. participatory budgeting). In this context, the Square Metre for Butterflies project aims to enhance urban biodiversity by improving the quality of green roofs, so that they better support Edinburgh’s natural ecosystem. In addition, it is a way of showing people how the urban landscape can be enhanced to benefit biodiversity even on a small scale. An objective in the long term is to demonstrate that having biodiverse green roofs is more of a benefit than just a kind of green wash.