The Greenest cities in the world
- Danielle Klaff
- May 13, 2019
- 8 min read
Updated: May 28, 2019
What makes a city "greener" than any other metropolis?
These cities have been chosen because of their commendable utilization of renewable energy, promotion and support of green lifestyles, endorsement of green laws for the protection of the environment, and their use of innovative strategies to accomplish their goals for greener communities.
Consider car ownership, green space, bicycle usage, solar installations, recycling, and water consumption, these are just some of the factors that add up to create environmentally responsible cities.
Stockholm, Sweden
Stockholm, Sweden has always managed to make it on the list of one of the most sustainable cities worth visiting in Europe. In 2010, this Swedish city was named as the European Green Capital due to its high commitment to sustainability, aiming to make the city fossil fuel free by 2050.
Stockholm’s very first attempts to be environmentally conscious started during the 1960s when a big campaign to clean the abundant waterways was launched. Today, rivers have been revived and one proof of that is the edible Salmon caught in the city river.
Stockholm is also one of the European cities with less carbon emissions at a mere 3.4 tons/capita, where the average is 10 tons/capita in other European cities, cutting their emissions down by 25%.
Stockholm also has its Environmental Program for 2012-2018 and it is based on the city’s vision to be a growing attractive city, where the people’s and nature’s needs balance off each other in a healthy environment characterized by quality living, functionality and biological diversity.
Stockholm also aims to prioritize other sustainable-inspired programs like encouraging the people to use their bike or walk, to lessen the noise levels, to increase eco-food product purchase, to reduce carbon emissions from 3.4 tons to even less than 3 tons per every resident, and to lessen incorrect recycling processes.
Vancouver, Canada
Vancouver has been recognized for trying to make the Winter Olympic games sustainable, but it’s their day-to-day focus that really allows this Canadian city to earn its ranking. 93% of Vancouver is powered by hydroelectricity and the aim is to continue to constantly bring down fossil fuel emissions.
Wind, solar, wave and tidal energy all help ensure that this city remains green.
Vancouver came out top in the ‘Best Green Building Policy’ category for its Greenest City 2020 Action Plan. As part of its goal to become the greenest city in the world, local councils are working with residents to enact a sweeping changes in how the city handles carbon, waste and ecosystem management. Vancouver has some ambitious targets ahead: for all new buildings constructed from 2020 onward to be carbon neutral; to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in existing buildings by 20 percent over 2007 levels by 2020; and a 28km Seaside Greenway and a new York Bikeway to transform the city’s transport system by increasing the electric vehicle charging stations annually.
Curitiba, Brazil
Curitiba, Brazil, is the greatest example of sustainable transport in a city, using buses, in the world today. More than 60% of the population depends on the bus system. The bus network operates like an above ground subway, as loading and unloading of passengers is made even with the curb by use of platforms lowered from bus doors. Many buses even have their own lanes, another way in which the efficiency of bus travel is enhanced.
Curitiba is heavily invested in alternative fuel technologies (such as biofuel) and operates what stand as the first biodiesel-only buses in Latin America. Cities worldwide using just some of Curitiba's bus practices could greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Curitiba has almost 600 square feet of green space per resident, mostly in the form of municipal parks. Curitiba has its residents' well-being as the priority of its layout, with over 90 miles of bike paths and many shopping areas built around pedestrian-only zones. As part of the city's aesthetically beautiful city design, there are 16 major parks and 14 forests in the metro area. At one point in the early planning stages, 1.5 million trees were planted throughout the city.
Curitiba has become an international model for sustainable development because it puts its people first and plans in a strategic and integrated way. The city was led in the 1970's and 1980's by mayor Jaime Lerner who imagined the ideal and helped create what the city has become today. Curitiba is best known now as a pioneer of sustainable mass transportation and waste recycling.
Portland, Oregon, United States
This city does not need too much introduction as – time and again – it has continuously beaten all the other US cities. Being Green has been achieved in Portland, now the city is focusing more on embracing nature. Local residents are now making it a popular practice to eat locally produced products, to carpool, to recycle and to make the buildings LEED-certified.
Although many U.S. cities are now jumping on board, this was the first city to focus upon alternative transit with light-rail and extensive bike path networks to encourage people to leave their cars in the driveway! It was also one of the first to pledge to reduce emissions and start transitioning buildings to use sustainable materials.
As Oregon’s largest city, Portland has efficiently utilized renewable energy resources for up to 20 percent more than what is being implemented nationally. Just like San Francisco, Portland was also one of the first US cities to ban the use of plastic bags. It also has about 250 miles bike lanes, trails and paths. As a matter of fact, Portland is named as the United State’s most bikeable city.
Oslo, Norway
Oslo, Norway has always made it to the list of the greenest cities in the world and it is not really surprising. This city managed to be the greenest in the Norway despite the fact that it is also one of the most populated. Oslo, is indeed a very commendable city for tourists because despite the continuously increasing number of residents, it still manages to sustain its objective to stay green and make use of innovative sustainable methods.
Oslo was named the world’s second greenest city in 2007, also as one of the most inhabitable. Many other European cities are also adopting true sustainable practices for better quality of life, not just for their local residents but also for their visitors. Long before the other cities decided to join the wagon for sustainable earth, Oslo already made its own mark and thus it was due to its has a long history regarding worldwide environmental concern.
When it comes to greenhouse gas emission, it is a well-known fact that Oslo has the lowest compared to other metropolitan cities in Europe. Thanks to the full cooperation of the population and the incentive given by the government for each new building developed and for the promotion of energy efficiency. Additionally, it is worth mentioning that 85 percent of the school children in Oslo either walk or ride their bikes to and from school. Local commuters use hydroelectric-powered public transportation.
This Norwegian capital aims to effectively and completely phase out fossil fuel use by the year 2020. About 140 city buses are soon going to run using biofuel processed from collected food waste.
Copenhagen, Denmark
Copenhagen is already a famous tourist destination because of its stunning sceneries, wonderful castles, and its pride, the Little Mermaid. But this Denmark city is not just all about being a popular tourist destination; it has also successfully made it on the list of one of the greenest cities of the world that is worth visiting. Copenhagen is attempting to become Carbon neutral by 2015.
Just like the other top green cities, Copenhagen was chosen due to its dedication to high standards of quality living in an efficient environmental means. Additionally, this city is also a European Green Capital title holder due to the government’s and the citizens’ efforts to achieve and sustain a very clean and hygienic environment.
Therefore, Copenhagen is indeed can be considered as among the most remarkable tourist destinations to go; after all, it has also been dubbed as one of the most livable city in Europe.
Freiburg, Germany
Freiburg in Germany is one of the cleanest cities in the world, giving it the chance to also be on the list of the greenest cities worth visiting. This German city is very unique because it is a car-free city. In this modern time when almost every city road is congested with heavy traffic due to the increasing number of fossil-fuel powered vehicles, this city has managed to stay medieval and traditional.
What makes Freiburg a very popular destination is that it is beautifully surrounded by lush green hills, making it a prettily fenced city. Who wouldn’t want to spend a good holiday on this city that has ben rebuild to be highly sustainable? It is car-free and highly sustainable.
Freiburg is also proud of its overabundance of solar panels atop of its buildings as varied as schools, local churches, and even the City Hall. One of the city’s main objectives is to continuously cultivate solar energy and to efficiently reduce its carbon emissions by 40 percent by the year 2030.
San Francisco, California
San Francisco in California has always been voted as one of the cleanest cities in North America and there are plenty of reasons why that is so. First, San Francisco was the first US key city that banned the use of plastic bag. Second, in October of 2009 this city launched its mandatory recycling program enabling it to keep 77 percent discarded waster materials safely away from the landfills — this is the highest diversion rate in the US.
San Francisco is also able to demonstrate that zero waste is a very attainable and environmentally responsible objective. It has been the city’s pride to announce that the trash collection campaigns have been highly successful mainly because the staffs of the city trash collection agencies have effectively reached out to educate the residents and business owners that it is important to recycle and compost for the achievement of a zero-waste city.
Of course, there has never been any question about San Francisco being a highly popular tourist destination. But the fact that it is one of the greenest cities in the world makes it a more appealing choice than some.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam may be the only city in the world that has more problems with pedestrian and cycling traffic congestion than vehicle congestion. 67% of all trips are done by cycling or walking. In fact, on a daily basis there are 10,000 bikes parked anywhere a space can be found adjacent to the central train station.
But Amsterdam is much more than just bikes. In fact, in speaking with the founder of this first bikesharing project in the world, which occurred in Amsterdam decades ago, Luud Schimmelpennick, showed me videos of their first experiment in electric vehicle sharing in the early 1990s.
In recent years, Amsterdam has stepped up its pace to be a leading smart city. Amsterdam Smart City is a public private partnership focused on using the city as an urban laboratory for the use of open data, new mobility solutions and ultimately improved quality of life for all residents and visitors. The collaboration has already supported more than 40 smart city projects ranging from smart parking to the development of home energy storage for integration with a smart grid.
Reykjavik, Iceland
This city is run entirely on renewable energy, including geothermal and hydroelectricity. Their transit system also uses hydrogen buses and it’s motivated to become Europe’s cleanest city. The city also utilizes only 0.1 percent fossil fuels in providing power for electricity. Now, that is a number that has not been achieved by any other city.
Presently, Reykjavik gathers its energy for electricity, hot water and heat from geothermal resources and hydro power. By 2050, it is estimated that the city will be highly independent from using fossil fuel.
So which city is the greenest?
It’s hard to say. In many respects, Stockholm beats the competition. But the cities need to be considered in their regional contexts. San Francisco is environmentally conscious compared to most other U.S. cities, and Vancouver is known as one of the greenest cities in Canada. All of the cities listed have features that should be copied by other cities. As the world’s population becomes more urban, these models of what can be done will become increasingly important.
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