There’s nothing better than being told how great (and green) you are.
With COP26 in the distance, climate change is the topic of many conversations and the reminders are becoming more frequent and more serious, so pushing sustainability is increasingly important for cities and countries around the world. A global study carried out by clothes2order took a look at UK cities and analysed other European countries to discover which have the most sustainable credentials, and low and behold, Bristol bagged first place as the most sustainable city in the UK.
For the rankings in this study, clothes2order analysed a range of factors including renewable electricity sites, recycling rate, average university sustainability rating and the number of charity shops in each city. Bristol took the top spot as the greenest city in the UK, with a sustainability score of 6.79 out of 10 and the city scored particularly well when it came to the eco-friendliness of its respected universities, with an average score of 55.9 out of 100.
The study also found that Bristol had 928 renewable electricity sites per 100,000 people, a recycling rate of 47.1% and 147 charity shops located in the city translated as 31.6 per 100,000 people. In the UK rankings, Bristol managed to beat Bournemouth for the top spot (6.07) and was then closely followed by Cardiff in third place with a score of 6.01.
Bristol has long been recognised as a leading sustainable city in the country, being named the most sustainable city way back in 2008 by Forum for the Future and was named European Green Capital in 2015. In 2019, Bristol City Council made a move to ban all privately owned diesel cars from the city centre although this has since been revised to install a ‘Clean Air Zone’.
In terms of each factor, Cardiff scored the best for its recycling rate (58.1%), London recorded the highest total number of charity shops and renewable electricity sites and Luton recorded the highest average university sustainability rating in the UK (65.3). As for the rankings for Europe’s most sustainable countries, the study took into account air pollution and sustainable development scores with Sweden coming first followed by Denmark and Belgium.