THE TOP ECO-FRIENDLY CITIES AROUND THE WORLD

For long scientists have been calling our attention to switch to a more sustainable lifestyle, but what changes do a city have to make in order to get into the list of the top eco-friendly cities around the world?

We don’t have the answer yet, but some of them are really setting up the example reducing the impact on the environment and improve the population lives overall.

From Vancouver’s green areas to Cape Town’s wind farms, there is a lot we can learn from these cities.

Without further ado, let’s check their great examples.

 

Copenhagen, Denmark

With its passionate efforts to be environmentally aware, Copenhagen is one of the most eco-friendly cities in the world!

The city is dedicated to working on many areas such as find new alternative energy sources, planting 100,000 new trees and to becoming the first CO2-neutral city, all that by 2025.

They even introduced extra cycle lanes and electric buses as only 29% of households own a car.

Copenhagen is also one of the leading cities in sustainable design and infrastructure. There are about 2,260 hectares of green areas with public access and since 2010, it is mandatory for every new building to have a green roof.

Another cool thing is that the Copenhagen harbor is so clean that you can swim at it.

And if you want to pay a visit, they got you covered! Hotels in the city provide guests with bicycles.

Pretty amazing, isn’t it?

Oslo, Norway

Oslo is one of the fastest developing capitals in Europe, but this did not hold them back on scoring a place as one of the most eco-friendly cities.

Nowadays 30% of all vehicles sold in there are electric and The Government administration has acquainted vehicle-free zones in order to empower more space for greenery and bicycles.

The city is really putting efforts to cut emanations by 50 percent by 2020 and to be totally carbon impartial by 2050.

Oslo also has a very cool app that works against food waste in establishments in the food and hospitality industry.

But what does the app do?

It “matches” leftover food coming from various restaurants, bakeries, cafes and hotels with people who are interested, avoiding these foods to go to waste.

What a great idea!

Vancouver

Vancouver is Canada’s greenest city and has the intention to become the world’s greenest city by 2020, with over 200 open clean parks.

On top of that, they are working really hard towards the development of clean-technology innovation.

One of those innovations is the solar-powered garbage compactors. Each of this compactor is measured just like a regular trash can but can hold up to five times the waste.

The result?

Fewer emissions-spewing trash trucks, low-carbon emissions and increased generation of renewable resources for up to 90 power.

Well done Vancouver!

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is known for having more bikes than people and this was only possible thanks to the city infrastructure.

Many of its attractions are accessible by bike, making it easy for not only locals but also tourists to choose an eco-friendly way to get around the city.

But the Dutch’s capital green badge isn’t only coming from its cycling movement alone.

Amsterdam was among the primary cities to stipulate sustainability measures and set a target date of 2020.

From solar panels and electric cars to growing their own food or buying from local farmers’ markets, the dutch got it all covered. Such a good example.

Cape Town

Cape Town is another star on our eco-friendly cities list!

The city is chasing for new and innovative technologies to become more sustainable and has currently set an aim to get 10% of its total energy from renewable sources by 2020.

They already started using wind farms as an energy solution back in 2008 and many of Captown citizens have started using solar panels and began to grow their own vegetables.

The city also monitors its carbon emissions annually, to make sure they are staying on track. It is confirmed that they reduced their carbon emissions by 4.1% between 2012 and 2015.

Apart from that, the town is attempting to implement an idealistic outdoor lifestyle.

To encourage this, they have been put a lot of investment into safe-cycle routes and permits bikes on buses without any extra charge!

San Francisco

Everyone already knows of San Francisco’s hippie fame, but they also score high in our top eco-friendly cities list.

San Francisco was the very first American city to prohibit the use of plastic bags, implementing the use of reusable totes, compostable bags, and bags made from recycled material.

Due to this initiative, the city has admirably diverted more than 1.6 million tons of waste from its landfills annually.

On top of that, a record-breaking 77 percent of its municipal waste is recycled.

The phenomenal open vehicle framework and government’s support for individuals to utilize electric cars likewise also helped San Francisco be one of the most eco-friendly cities on the planet.

Stockholm

Stockholm was the primary EU city that won the European Green Capital Award and is known for being the cleanest city in the EU.

The capital has one of the world’s most well-known eco-neighborhoods, Hammarby Sjöstad.

From the eco-friendly check marks to vehicle sharing, solar panels, food decomposing systems, minimal noising pollution this neighborhood has it all.

The city aims to be 100% fossil fuel free by 2050 and already has a well-established system that keeps it running without using heavy fossil fuel reserves.

The Scandinavian city is also known for waste recycling and transforming the wastes into biogas, which can be used to generate electricity.

Another clever move by the city is a project that will make use of waste heat generated by stadiums, datacenters and shops to be used for providing heating to the residents of Stockholm.

It is great to see all this effort towards a sustainable living, but let’s not forget about all the individual effort.

In order to do that, you can take a look at the  10 changes you can make to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle post that we have made and start doing your share on this change as well!