What characteristics does a city have to have to be considered sustainable? For Arcadis, a consulting firm specializing in this matter, there are three pillars that must be taken into account when measuring the sustainability of the large cities of our planet:
Social aspect: life expectancy, obesity rates, conciliation, crime, costs of living and dependency are some of the variables that evaluate the quality of life of citizens.
Environmental aspect: which is measured through the implementation of clean energy, pollution, recycling and composting rate, mobility, risk of catastrophes, level of emissions, etc.
Economic aspect: this index evaluates aspects of the possibilities of starting a business successfully in the city, tourism, GDP, connectivity or employment rates.
Using a combination of these three indices, Arcadis and the Center for Economics and Business Research (UK) regularly evaluate a list of the most sustainable cities in the world. The last one is from 2016 and analyzes 100 large cities using 32 different indicators. Its creators warn that you have to look closely at the results, since many times there is a certain imbalance in these indices. For example, many cities get very good marks in social and environmental aspects, but they limp in economic. And, no matter how livable and green a city is, if there is no possibility of running a business or finding a decent job, it will be a place where the quality of life is not adequate and where sustainability cannot be guaranteed. long-term.
Why is it important to analyze the sustainability of the great cities of the planet? In an increasingly urban world, and with great environmental challenges ahead, sustainability should be high on political agendas. To do this, it is necessary to know in depth in which aspects each city ‘limps’ in order to put more emphasis on them, and to learn from the initiatives that have already been launched in other places to improve the quality of life on a day-to-day basis.
One of the conclusions of the report is that there is a very clear link between economic development and sustainability. With the exception of Seoul and Singapore, the top ten places on the list are occupied by European cities, three of them German. In the middle of the ranking we have cities in southern Europe, the US and Asia. And, in the last positions, cities in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East predominate.
