Most Cities Failing On Sustainability
Cities around the world are failing to meet the needs of their people, according to the inaugural Sustainable Cities Index. However, on a broad scale that measures people, planet and profit, Frankfurt is the world’s most sustainable city. London is the runner up.
The research was conducted by the Centre for Economics and Business Research. It examines 50 cities from 31 countries ranking them across a range of indicators to estimate the sustainability of each city. The cities included in the study were selected to provide a sampling of the planet’s greenest cities.
The 2015 report finds that no utopian city exists, with city leaders having to manage a complex balancing act between the three pillars of sustainability (people, planet and profit). The overall Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index ranks the cities as follows:
- Frankfurt
- London
- Copenhagen
- Amsterdam
- Rotterdam
- Berlin
- Seoul
- Hong Kong
- Madrid
- Singapore
- Sydney
- Toronto
- Brussels
- Manchester
- Boston
- Paris
- Melbourne
- Birmingham
- Chicago
- New York
- Houston
- Philadelphia
- Tokyo
- Rome
- Washington
- Kuala Lumpur
- San Francisco
- Los Angeles
- Dallas
- Santiago
- Sao Paulo
- Mexico City
- Dubai
- Abu Dhabi
- Shanghai
- Istanbul
- Johannesburg
- Buenos Aires
- Beijing
- Rio de Janeiro
- Doha
- Moscow
- Jeddah
- Riyadh
- Jakarta
- Manila
- Mumbai
- Wuhan
- New Delhi
- Nairobi
The index takes into account 20 different indicators ranging from green space to income inequality to ease of doing business.
Although mature cities achieve the best balance, they cannot rely on historic investment. In a rapidly urbanizing world, the way in which cities are planned, built, operated and redefined has a huge social, environmental and economic impact.
Arcadis defines a sustainable city as one that works well for their citizens in the present without causing problems for themselves and the rest of the world in the future.
Roughly half of Frankfurt’s surface area is green, according to the city’s environment department, which notes that 52 percent of the city area has been set aside for recreation and to offset climate change. It consists of parks, woodland, farmland, orchard meadows, grassland, allotments and hobby gardens, cemeteries, roadside grass verges and bodies of water.
Frankfurt also is a founding member of the Climate Alliance of European Cities, pledging to continuously reduce its carbon emissions by 10 percent every five years, resulting in a 50 percent cut by 2030.
Across the world, cities are performing better for being sustainable for Profit and Planet purposes than they are for People factors. Many of the world’s economic powerhouses are becoming less affordable for their citizens, with the cost of property in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong penalizing their rankings. There is also a tradeoff globally between strong education and poor work-life balance, particularly demonstrated in Hong Kong.
“City leaders need to find ways to balance the demands of generating strong financial returns, being an attractive place for people to live and work, while limiting their damage to the environment. To truly understand how sustainable a city is, we must understand how it ranks in People, Planet and Profit. Only then can city leaders act to assess their priorities, and the pathway to urban sustainability – for the good of all,” said John Batten, Global Cities Director at Arcadis, which produced the new urban index.
