Fifty cities were analysed across a variety of metrics, including their sustainability ranking, pollution score, air quality and number of B corporations.
Vienna, recently ranked the most liveable city, has also been crowned top for eco-conscious business with high levels of sustainable development, extensive cycle routes and an air quality index score of 84.6.
Stockholm, Copenhagen, Edinburgh and Munich round out the top five cities in the ranking.
Sustainability ranking
Online printing company Solopress analysed 50 cities across a variety of metrics, including each location’s sustainability ranking, pollution score, air quality and number of B corporations to uncover the best cities for eco-conscious businesses.
B Corp Certification is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on a range of factors, including employee benefits, charitable giving, supply chain practices and input materials.
Vienna, Stockholm, and Copenhagen lead the pack in sustainability, with high scores in sustainable development, air quality, cycling routes, and B corporation count. Notably, Vienna boasts an air quality index of 84.6 and extensive cycling infrastructure. Edinburgh, the top-ranking UK city, intertwines urban development and environmental preservation, hosting a significant network of cycling routes and 1,765 B corporations.
Boston is the top-rated US city, boasting a sustainable development ranking and 2,496 B corporations, indicating a strong culture of sustainability within the city’s business community.
Certain global cities present hurdles for eco-conscious businesses. Marseille, scored the highest pollution score and the worst air quality among analysed cities.
The research also revealed that Los Angeles displayed the second-worst pollution score and the US having one of the lowest sustainable development rankings. Barcelona suffers from high pollution levels and a lack of cycling routes, ranking 11th from the bottom among analysed cities.
In the UK, Oxford and Cambridge led the way. Both champion cycling as a primary transportation mode, and have established ambitious clean energy initiatives, with Oxford’s Energy Superhub Oxford project and the Cambridge Sustainable City programme.
Solopress took a seedlist of 50 of the most sustainable cities worldwide as a base for the project. It then ranked these cities based on metrics such as:
- sustainable development ranking (by country);
- the cost to start a business index (by country);
- pollution score (by city);
- air quality (by city);
- distance of mapped cycling routes (by city) and
- number of B corporations (by country).
Each city was given a score on each of these metric and ranked in accordance to this. Its sources are credited as:
- Sustainable development ranking: Sustainable Development Report
- Pollution score and air quality: Numbeo
- Distance of mapped cycling routes: Bikemap
- Number of B corporations: B Corporation
The company also looked into its own in-house data which gave the UK cities where businesses are investing the most in sustainable alternatives.
More details of the ranking can be found here.
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Quelle/Source: Smart Cities World, 18.07.2023
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