Singapore, Seoul and Hong Kong rank among the top 10 most environmentally friendly and economically sustainable cities in the world, ranking 10th, 7th and 8th respectively.
Arcadis, a global natural and built asset design company headquartered in the Netherlands, collaborates with the Center for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), a British think tank, to evaluate 50 famous companies around the world based on the triple bottom line - environment, economy and society. cities and publish the Sustainable Cities Index report.
Except for the above three Asian cities, the top 10 cities are all located in Europe, not surprisingly. Frankfurt and Berlin in Germany ranked 1st and 6th respectively, London in the United Kingdom ranked 2nd, and Copenhagen in Denmark ranked 3rd. , Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the Netherlands ranked 4th and 5th, while Madrid, Spain ranked 9th.
Arcadis pointed out that the triple bottom line is currently the best way to evaluate the performance of cities from three different aspects: economic, environmental and social. Through several sub-projects belonging to these three aspects, each city obtains a comprehensive score, allowing stakeholders to understand where the city can make further progress.
Taking Singapore as an example, it scores very high in both environmental and economic aspects. Environmentally oriented indicators include urban energy consumption, recycling rates, air pollution levels, drinking water and sanitation, etc. Economic-oriented indicators evaluate the city's flexibility and importance in the global economy, as well as people's property and living costs.
Among the three Asian cities in the top 10, only Singapore also ranks among the best in environmental indicators. This is due to the Singapore government's focus on sustainable management in urban planning. For example, the National Building and Construction Authority of Singapore has set a goal that by 2030, at least 80% buildings will obtain sustainable certification. However, the report also pointed out that due to Singapore's poor energy efficiency, which has led to higher business operating costs, Singapore's ranking cannot be improved.
For details of the report, please download the attachment: arcadis-sustainable-cities-index-report (English)
Source:Eco-Business (2015-02-10) (PIDC compilation) Attachment file:arcadis-sustainable-cities-index-report.pdf
