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The Green City Index series has measured the environmental performance of more than 120 cities throughout the world. Singapore, Copenhagen was a predictable victor in the European region, scoring 87 compared to London’s 72 (in 11th place) and Kiev’s bottom-of-the-pile 32.
Why not stop pretending “greenness” is a measurable thing, and instead focus on the details we’re actually interested in? Despite its enthusiasm for bikes, Copenhagen finished behind Stockholm and Amsterdam in transport – but made the top seven in every category. Measuring a city’s relationship to its environment, they write, is “complex” and “challenging”, and eco-cities cannot easily be compared. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Bristol is the ‘green capital’ of Europe, but its predecessor Copenhagen comes top in a Europe-wide index. So who are the winners? The Planet sub-index ranks cities on energy consumption and renewable energy share, green space within cities, recycling and composting rates, greenhouse gas emissions, natural catastrophe risk, drinking water, sanitation and air pollution. The European Green Capital Award is an award for a European city based on its environmental record. But for greenness or eco-friendliness, the possible indicators are endless, covering everything from road transport to recycling.Other “green indicators” in this study include the share of all “trips” made by public transport, and the daily average concentrations of air pollutants – plus a surprising number of social and economic variables, such as healthcare practitioners per 1,000 citizens and unemployment rates.Measuring a city’s relationship to its environment is 'complex' and 'challenging' – eco-cities cannot easily be comparedThe study’s researchers have also reviewed other systems for assessing a city’s greenness, coming up with 14 international-level methods. Curitiba, San Francisco and Singapore all have strong eco-friendly claims too - so what’s the best way to compare cities’ greenness?In the realm of environmental science, concepts such as biodiversity can be assessed using indicators that give a standard set of measurements – for example, the number of different species of birds spotted in a given area on a given day. To learn about our use of cookies and how you can manage your cookie settings, please see our Register to receive personalised research and resources by email Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, , Norwegian University of Science and Technology, SP Andersensv 5 , Valgrinda , Trondheim , 7491 , Norway /doi/full/10.1080/09640568.2012.741520?needAccess=true
And another problematic issue it raises is how to compare cities in vastly different economic situations – is it fair to compare the developing and developed urban worlds?Another problem is how to compare cities in vastly different economic situations – is that fair?One interesting finding to come out of the Siemens studies is that both richest and poorest cities in a region often outperform middle-income ones. Welcome to the Green City tool.
The average resident of Kuala Lumpur, for example, uses 497 litres of water per day and produces 816 kilograms of waste per year.
For example, which cities have the cleanest air or the lowest greenhouse gas emissions?
Yet even then, it’s still difficult to find data of this type that has been collected and reported on consistently across a wide number of cities.As more genuinely useful, comparable measures are developed for city-level use, it should become clearer which cities are performing best. But they conclude that, in essence, there is no good system. The Economist Intelligence Unit chose cities on the basis of size and importance. It provided city administrations with an idea of where they stood We use cookies to improve your website experience.
The award was launched on 22 May 2008 and the first award was given to Stockholm for the year 2010. The European Commission has long recognised the important role that local authorities play in improving the environment, and their high level of commitment to genuine progress. These indicators can broadly be thought of as capturing “green factors”. In the midst of economic growth, it seems, consumption overtakes sustainability and isn’t curbed until a city becomes positively wealthy. Most are capital cities, large population hubs and business centres. In 2009, Siemens (Germany) sponsored the research by the Economist Intelligence Unit (London), which resulted in the publication of the European Green City Index report, in which the environmental performance of 30 large cities in Europe was analysed. Curitiba in Brazil, San Francisco in the US and Singapore came top in their respective regions, with Singapore’s The Green City Index is certainly not the perfect system. European Green Capital; Green City Tool Home Your profile Assessment by topic Results overview Guidance & Best practices by topic Green city map. Contrast these statistics to those of relatively richer Singapore – 309 litres of water and 307 kilograms of waste – or relatively poorer Delhi: 209 litres of water and 147 kilograms of waste. )In the absence of an accepted scientific indicator system, the Slightly less “skewed”, perhaps, is the Siemens-sponsored Although it’s difficult to compare cities from different regions, especially as data from each was collected at different times, the Green City Index does attempt to rank cities, from those that perform well above average for their region down to those that perform well below average. Ljubljana’s Old Town: the city will be European Green Capital in 2016. Green factors.
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The European Green City Index measures and rates the environmental performance of 30 leading cities from 30 European countries, as well as their commitment to reducing their environmental impact.