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These metropolises aren't literally the greenest places on earth -- they're not necessarily dense with foliage, for one, and some still have a long way to go down the path to sustainability. But all of the cities on this list deserve recognition for making impressive strides toward eco-friendliness, helping their many millions of residents live better, greener lives. If your favorite green city didn't make the list, tell us why it deserves recognition in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
Reykjavik, Iceland
Remember the grade-school memory device "Greenland is icy and Iceland is green"? It's truer than ever thanks to progress made by Iceland and its capital city in recent years. Reykjavik has been putting hydrogen buses on its streets, and, like the rest of the country, its heat and electricity come entirely from renewable geothermal and hydropower sources and it's determined to become fossil-fuel-free by 2050. The mayor has pledged to make Reykjavik the cleanest city in Europe. Take that, Greenland.
Portland, Oregon, U.S.
The City of Roses' approach to urban planning and outdoor spaces has often earned it a spot on lists of the greenest places to live. Portland is the first U.S. city to enact a comprehensive plan to reduce CO2 emissions and has aggressively pushed green building initiatives. It also runs a comprehensive system of light rail, buses, and bike lanes to help keep cars off the roads, and it boasts 92,000 acres of green space and more than 74 miles of hiking, running, and biking trails.
Curitiba, Brazil
With citizens riding a bus system hailed as one of the world's best and with municipal parks benefiting from the work of a flock of 30 lawn-trimming sheep, this midsized Brazilian city has become a model for other metropolises. About three-quarters of its residents rely on public transport, and the city boasts over 580 square feet of green space per inhabitant. As a result, according to one survey, 99 percent of Curitibans are happy with their hometown.
Malmö, Sweden
Known for its extensive parks and green space, Sweden's third-largest city is a model of sustainable urban development. With the goal of making Malmö an "ekostaden" (eco-city), several neighborhoods have already been transformed using innovative design and are planning to become more socially, environmentally, and economically responsive. Two words, Malmö: organic meatballs.
Vancouver, Canada
Its dramatic perch between mountains and sea makes Vancouver a natural draw for nature lovers, and its green accomplishments are nothing to scoff at either. Drawing 90 percent of its power from renewable sources, British Columbia's biggest city has been a leader in hydroelectric power and is now charting a course to use wind, solar, wave, and tidal energy to significantly reduce fossil-fuel use. The metro area boasts 200 parks and over 18 miles of waterfront, and has developed a way-forward-thinking 100-year plan for sustainability. Assuming civilization will last another 100 years? Priceless.
Copenhagen, Denmark
With a big offshore wind farm just beyond its coastline and more people on bikes than you can shake a stick at, Copenhagen is a green dream. The city christened a new metro system in 2000 to make public transit more efficient. And it recently won the European Environmental Management Award for cleaning up public waterways and implementing holistic long-term environmental planning. Plus, the pastries? Divine.
London, England
When Mayor Ken Livingstone unveiled London's Climate Change Action Plan in February, it was just the latest step in his mission to make his city the world's greenest. Under the plan, London will switch 25 percent of its power to locally generated, more-efficient sources, cut CO2 emissions by 60 percent within the next 20 years, and offer incentives to residents who improve the energy efficiency of their homes. The city has also set stiff taxes on personal transportation to limit congestion in the central city, hitting SUVs heavily and letting electric vehicles and hybrids off scot-free.
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Nearly half of all 'Friscans take public transit, walk, or bike each day, and over 17 percent of the city is devoted to parks and green space. San Francisco has also been a leader in green building, with more than 70 projects registered under the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED certification system. In 2001, San Francisco voters approved a $100 million bond initiative to finance solar panels, energy efficiency, and wind turbines for public facilities. The city has also banned non-recyclable plastic bags and plastic kids' toys laced with questionable chemicals. Next thing you know, they'll all be wearing flowers in their hair.
Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador
After it suffered severe damage from natural disasters in the late 1990s, the Bahía de Caráquez government and nongovernmental organizations working in the area forged a plan to rebuild the city to be more sustainable. Declared an "Ecological City" in 1999, it has since developed programs to protect biodiversity, revegetate denuded areas, and control erosion. The city, which is marketing itself as a destination for eco-tourists, has also begun composting organic waste from public markets and households and supporting organic agriculture and aquaculture.
Sydney, Australia
The Land Down Under was the first country to put the squeeze on inefficient, old-school light bulbs, but Sydney-dwellers took things a step further in March, hosting a city-wide one-hour blackout to raise awareness about global warming. Add to that their quest for carbon neutrality, innovative food-waste disposal program, and new Green Square, and you've got a metropolis well on its way to becoming the Emerald City of the Southern Hemisphere.
Barcelona, Spain
Hailed for its pedestrian-friendliness (37 percent of all trips are taken on foot!), promotion of solar energy, and innovative parking strategies, Barcelona is creating a new vision for the future in Europe. City leaders' urban-regeneration plan also includes poverty reduction and investment in neglected areas, demonstrating a holistic view of sustainability.
Bogotá, Colombia
In a city known for crime and slums, one mayor led a crusade against cars that has helped to make Bogotá one of the most accessible and sustainable cities in the Western Hemisphere. Enrique Peñalosa, mayor from 1998 to 2001, used his time in office to create a highly efficient bus transit system, reconstruct sidewalks so pedestrians could get around safely, build more than 180 miles of bike trails, and revitalize 1,200 city green spaces. He restricted car use on city streets during rush hour, cutting peak-hour traffic 40 percent, and raised the gas tax. The city also started an annual "car-free day," and aims to eliminate personal car use during rush hour completely by 2015. Unthinkable!
Bangkok, Thailand
Once known for smokestacks, smog, and that unshakeable '80s song, Bangkok has big plans for a brighter future. City Governor Apirak Kosayodhin recently announced a five-year green strategy, which includes efforts to recycle citizens' used cooking oil to make biodiesel, reduce global-warming emissions from vehicles, and make city buildings more efficient. Bangkok has also made notable progress in tackling air pollution over the past decade. Though the city's pollution levels are still higher than some of its big-city Asian counterparts, its progress thus far is impressive.
Kampala, Uganda
This capital city is overcoming the challenges faced by many urban areas in developing countries. Originally built on seven hills, Kampala takes pride in its lush surroundings, but it is also plagued by big-city ills of poverty and pollution. Faced with the "problem" of residents farming within city limits, the city passed a set of bylaws supporting urban agriculture that revolutionized not only the local food system, but also the national one, inspiring the Ugandan government to adopt an urban-ag policy of its own. With plans to remove commuter taxis from the streets, establish a traffic-congestion fee, and introduce a comprehensive bus service, Kampala is on its way to becoming a cleaner, safer, more sustainable place to live.
Austin, Texas, U.S.
Austin is poised to become the No. 1 solar manufacturing center in the U.S., and its hometown utility, Austin Energy, has given the notion of pulling power from the sun a Texas-sized embrace. The city is on its way to meeting 20 percent of its electricity needs through the use of renewables and efficiency by 2020. Austin also devotes 15 percent of its land to parks and other open spaces, boasts 32 miles of bike trails, and has an ambitious smart-growth initiative, making it a happy green nook in what's widely perceived as a not-so-green state. To put it mildly.
Runners-Up
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) is striving to make his hometown "the greenest city in America." There's lots of literal greenery: under his leadership, Chicago has planted 500,000 new trees, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the revitalization of parks and neighborhoods, and added more than 2 million square feet of rooftop gardens, more than all other U.S. cities combined. And there's plenty of metaphorical greening too: the Windy City has built some of the most eco-friendly municipal buildings in the country, been a pioneer in municipal renewable-energy standards, provided incentives for homeowners to be more energy efficient, and helped low-income families get solar power.
Freiburg, Germany
Home to the famously car-free Vauban neighborhood and a number of eco-transit innovations, Freiburg is a tourist destination with a green soul. The city has also long embraced solar power.
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Mayor Greg Nickels (D) has committed his city to meeting the emission-reduction goals of the Kyoto climate treaty, and inspired more than 590 other U.S. mayors to do the same. True to its name, the Emerald City is also planting trees, building green, and benefiting from biodiesel and hybrid buses.
Quebec City, Canada
Dubbed the most sustainable city in Canada by the Corporate Knights Forum, Quebec wins big points for clean water, good waste management, and bike paths aplenty. C'est magnifique!
Kate Sheppard contributed to this list.
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Greenwashing DaleyTwo articles below support show that further references to Mayor Daley of Chicago being green is a classic case of greenwashing:
Daley's city not so 'green'
By Michael Hawthorne Tribune staff reporter June 18, 2007 p.1
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2007/06/18/2719505.htm
Daley's 20% green-power goal for 2006? In reality, not 1 watt
by Michael Hawthorne, Chicago Tribune Nov. 20, 2006, p.1
http://www.airpollutionnews.com/2006/11/20/7612/daleys-20 ...
Iceland Hydrogen Phase OutI was just in Iceland and I heard that they are going to get rid of their fuel cell buses now that the grant money is gone. They are switching to landfill methane, so at least it's not all bad.
Hydropower ain't green (15 greenest cities)You mention that Vancouver is a green city partly because it gets electricity from hydropower. While small-scale hydro may be an exception, as a rule, hydropower is anything but green. Dams kill rivers dead, along with the fish and plants that depend on natural, free-flowing rivers. And hyrdo in Canada's boreal forest is an environmental disaster -- flooding enormous areas of forest, ending their carbon capture and killing their wildlife.
vancouverVancouver is beautiful, but the last I heard they were still planning to stop dumping all their considerable gallons of raw sewage into the puget sound and contaminating all those wonderful beaches and ocean life. If so, how could they be listed so high on the green city list- unless it is bluegreen???
New York City is easily the U.S.'s greenest......because of the subway system and bus system. According to the U.S. statistical abstract, page 37, in 2003 38% of all transit ridership in the U.S. occurred in the NYC area, 7% in Chicago, and 5% in SF. Austin Texas, number 15 on this list, had less than 1% of transit ridership. It's ridiculous not to include transit ridership in these rankings.
Sydney green? You've got to be kiddingI hope the rest of your green cities aren't as full of hot air as Sydney. The skies ain't blue in Sydney any more and the rail system is on its last legs. Green Square is green only in name and is just a property development. And our national environment minister's plan to phase out electric light bulbs was made with an eye to an election this year, sounds implausible given the 'plan' to phase out disposable plastic bags in supermarkets has been going on for about ten years, is left up to industry, and has achieved little. It also pales into insignificance from an Environment Minister who steadfastly refuses to sign the Kyoto Treaty.
Carbon FootprintDoes anybody have a list of the cities' carbon footprints of their average resident? It seems to me that that is the only objective way to truly measure how "Green" a city is.
I heard somewhere that Manhattan NY residents have a carbon footprint 1/3 the average American!
They can easily walk or ride mass transit to work or the store so 80% dont even own a car. They live in big buildings that share walls saving in heating and cooling loads.
"NO IMPACT" man also lives there. He lives with a zero carbon footprint! Only in Manhattan.
green citiesI have an article that is called "NYC is the greenest city in America" by David Owen. I also believe that he is probably right.
Good cities are the sustainable way to live on this planet. No matter how many gizmos we are packing into our suburban homes, we will never even make them acceptable in terms of being a sustainable solution.
A while ago, an architect in Colorado loosely associated with the Rocky Mountain Institute published a study that compared the carbon footprint of a very unaware city dweller in Philadelphia (he would leave the windows open rather than turn the heat off, etc...) living in an average row house in that city, with a green conscious person living in some tricked out earth ship off the grid in -- let's say -- New Mexico.
The person in Philly won without trying.
We cannot become a sustainable country as long as we insist on our suburban settlement patterns which generate sprawl.
Remember, suburbs were invented to discourage workers from organizing into unions, by feeding the selfish instincts inside of them. "As long as a man can walk around his house, he won't become a communist".
This fear is the underlying fear that drives people against their own interest, and makes us all still accept unsustainable practices.
Funny, huh - fear of communism, still the same old boogie man, now prevents us from effectively combating climate change.
Congrats ReykjavikSounds like they're doing some great stuff, but I'd take Reykjavik and Iceland more seriously as a "green" location if the country stopped commercial whaling.
Vancouver BCMy vote goes to Van BC for being the most pro-active to reduce their carbon footprint. I was there a couple weeks ago because I had heard so much about it. We here in Portland have gotten most of our ideas from Vancouver long ago but they have been more successful. To list some:
#1. Most important, they have made it illegal to build on their surrounding farmland since about 1970 so they have stopped sprawl!
#2This has made it necessary to grow more upward and increase density. They invented the "skinny towers" that pack their downtown and many other places, which dont block all the sun.
Not only has it helped stop sprawl but it has made their downtown remarkably VIBRANT! Robson, Davies, Granville and Denman streets are packed with pedestrians all day and night long even during weekdays.
Storees dont close until 11 pm or so!
#3 No freeways go through Vancouver! Freeways just encourage people to live further out in the burbs which is what has ruined American cities. After 6 pm American downtowns (except Manhattan) become ghost towns.
#4 They built a great light rail mass transit called "SkyTrain" which is now being greatly expanded before the 2010 Olympics. It will be a subway under their downtown. Each Skytrain station is surrounded by half a dozen or more skinny tower apts and condos.
One criticism though is that their downtown is very congested with cars as well. SOmetimes the cars block pedestrians crossings at red lights. I think the ...read more