Green cities offer healthier living environments. Less air, water, and soil pollution reduces the risk of various diseases. Green cities typically use resources such as water and energy more efficiently and produce less waste. This promotes sustainability and reduces negative impacts on nature. In this article, you will learn about the most environmentally friendly cities in the world. If you are interested in ideas for urban improvement, you can estimate unique concepts and support current projects at https://algorytm.ngo/.

The Most Environmentally Friendly Cities in the World in 2022-2023
(Photo : The Most Environmentally Friendly Cities in the World in 2022-2023)

Criteria for Assessing the State of the City

To determine which cities in the world are environmentally friendly, it is necessary to define criteria. Knowing the principles of assessment, you can easily rank cities and assess directions for future development.

  • Air purity measured by indicators such as emissions of pollution sources, including cars, per person, and the amount of harmful substances in the atmosphere. Based on these indicators, a pollution index is compiled.

  • State of water resources. Here, it is important to know how much water is consumed per person per day, including wasted water, and the percentage of water that does not meet sanitary standards. This criterion also evaluates the number of households provided with centralized water supply and sanitation.

  • Waste. What is important is how much waste there is per person and the percentage of its disposal, as well as its placement in conservation areas.

  • Territory. Estimation of the number of parks and natural forests in the vicinity of cities, as well as the proportion of areas occupied by industrial enterprises or not used in any way (wastelands).

  • Transport. This is an assessment of how often residents use public transport, the amount of environmentally friendly transport (transport that uses natural gas, as well as electric cars), and the average time it takes city residents to get to work.

In addition to the criteria, it is very important to consider how different countries around the world approach keeping their own city clean.

From this point of view, all cities can be classified as follows:

  • The city leadership allocates funds to improve the environmental situation. At the same time, the management trains city residents to behave correctly so that environmental protection is in better condition.

  • The city has a very difficult environmental situation, but at the same time, its authorities do not shy away and try to solve problems.

  • Cities where there is no industrial production that affects the environment. However, the residents themselves behave in such a way that they constantly violate principles and rules.

  • Large cities in which the environmental situation is at a very low level. But there are absolutely no funds in the budget to improve the hopeless situation somehow.

In this scale, ecology is the highest value, from which all other indicators are based and have their own characteristics.

Rating of Ecologically Clean Cities

Absolutely clean areas are difficult to find in the modern world. But, guided by the criteria and classification described above, it is possible to determine the most environmentally friendly cities.

  1. Hamburg meets all the criteria for an ideal city. This metropolis has a very low level of personal car use, almost zero. Almost everyone switched to public transport, powered by electric energy or based on the use of gas fuel. This reduces the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in large quantities. Every year, the city administration allocates 25 million euros for the city's ecology.

  2. Chicago. This city of 2.7 million people is one of the top 10 for ecology because it pays a lot of attention to landscaping. Trees and bushes grow along every street and alley, even on the roofs of skyscrapers. It is also important that the city authorities convinced 80% of citizens to use public transport and give up their personal car to move around the city.

  3. Copenhagen. This city is considered one of the cleanest in Europe. There are a lot of green spaces, clean air, and excellent water. There is practically no personal transport, and only environmentally friendly public means of transportation are used. The population of Copenhagen is just over 600 thousand people.

  4. Oslo. The capital of Norway, with a population of just over 500 thousand people, claims to be a particularly clean city. There are no large industrial enterprises or hazardous industries here. The Norwegians took care to import finished products into the country. In the city itself and its surroundings, there are a large number of green spaces, as well as forest parks. The city government puts a lot of effort into maintaining the best environmental conditions.

  5. Vein. The capital of Austria, with a population of almost two million people, is the largest city in Europe. But at the same time, it is one of the most environmentally friendly due to the fact that the authorities are making large investments in cleanliness and livability. There are many parks and tree plantations here. And the residents themselves carefully ensure that the laws of cleanliness are not violated.

  6. Reykjavik. Iceland is a large island state in the ocean, and this city is its capital. There is no industry here. As in the entire country, which can be called ideal in an environmental sense. The city authorities are doing a lot to ensure that there are as many green spaces as possible. So that citizens use public transport more often, and only clean cars appear: on biofuel, gas, or electricity.

Wrapping It Up

The problem of most cities in the world is to create an environmental situation that is most conducive to the development of the metropolis. And here, a lot depends on the authorities themselves, on their desire to invest in certain infrastructures to create a clean environment. If you want to support current initiatives in Ukraine, a country that is striving to reach a new level of improvement in life, pay attention to the NGO Algorithm of Actions. It provides you with new ideas for the development of IT projects, reconstruction of buildings, and the use of cultural and historical code in new projects, etc.