Frankfurt! Not only is Frankfurt one of the leading international finance centres, it also sits atop Arcadis’ Sustainable Cities Index 2015. To complete the ranking, 50 cities in 31 countries were analysed according to their perfomance in three categories: Profit, Planet and People with Frankfurt taking out top spot in the first two categories.
Cities like London, Boston, Seoul and São Paulo exhibit future-oriented, sustainable actions while in the general ranking, Nairobi sits in last place. The study also found that, worldwide, there is no super city that fulfills each and every sustainable criterion – that remains a utopian idea.
Growing cities require special planning in order to meet the needs of both the people and the environment effectively. Some cities, like Frankfurt, follow intelligent approaches to urban design while others try to reduce CO2 emissions via smart transport systems and energy efficient construction methods. Some cities are right at the start of their sustainable journey and have great potential to gear development towards sustainability and becoming a smart city.
From Green Cover to Income Distribution and Smart Transport Systems
Alongside the three main categories listed above, Arcadis – an international consultancy firm active in the areas of infrastructure, water, environment and real estate – also matched each city against a set of sub categories like transport, education and healthcare as well as hurdles in the business world and rates of recycling, using a total of 20 indicators to build the ranking. The Index gleaned its findings from official data produced by the United Nations, the World Bank and the World Health Organization among others.
The cities that were analysed are all at difierent stages of development, yet they face similar challenges when it comes to job creation, poverty reduction, mobility and improving quality of residents’ life.
Download the complete report as a PDF.
This article has been translated from the original article by Hanadi on our German platform.
