Well, this is surprising. A new ranking of the greenest and most sustainable cities in the world has three Canadian cities in the top ten, with one Canadian city right at the top of the pile.
The Green Cities Index, by Dutch sustainability experts Reinders Corporation (whoch makes industrial climate systems, dehumidifiers, etc), takes into account accessibility of green space per capita, renewable energy usage, air quality, public transportation efficiency, bikeability, and a few other measures. It shows Vancouver at No. 1, above the likes of Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen. Montreal is at No 7, and hometown Toronto comes in at No. 9.
I don't think of our cities as being in the same league as many European cities as regards suatainability, so this comes as quite a (pleasant) surprise. Vancouver scored particularly highly on green space and renewable energy, and had the best air quality in the study (this was presumably measured outside of wildfire season).
The full top 10 is:
- Vancouver, Canada
- Oslo Norway
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Munich, Germany
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Montreal, Canada
- Sam Francisco, USA
- Toronto Canada
- London, UK
Interestingly, although the findings are reported by several media outlets, I can't find a link to the original Reinders index. Also interesting that a similar exercise by Canadian sustainability organization Corporate Knights has Vancouver down at No. 10, Toronto at No. 15, and, yes, the Scandinavian cities at the top.
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