Asian cities trail their European counterparts when it comes to sustainability, taking seven of the top ten places in the first ARCADIS Sustainable Cities Index published this week,
Frankfurt sits in first place, followed by London and Copenhagen. According to the report North American cities also show room for improvement, failing to appear in the top ten most sustainable cities
Asian cities show the most divergence, with Seoul, Hong Kong and Singapore in the top ten while others make up the lower rankings
Developing cities have focused on economic sustainability, but must now focus on becoming centers for people and environmental stewards
Across the world, cities are failing to meet the needs of their people, according to the inaugural report. The Index, conducted by the Center for Economics and Business Research explored three demands of social (People), environmental (Planet) and economic (Profit) to develop an indicative ranking of 50 of the world’s leading cities.
The 2015 report finds that no utopian city exists, with city leaders having to manage a complex balancing act between the three pillars of sustainability.
Overall the top ten and bottom ten cities in the 2015 ARCADIS Sustainable Cities Index are:
1. Frankfurt
2. London
3. Copenhagen
4. Amsterdam
5. Rotterdam
6. Berlin
7. Seoul
8. Hong Kong
9. Madrid
10. Singapore
Cities in Asia demonstrated the greatest divergence. Seoul, Hong Kong and Singapore all made it into the top ten of the overall rankings, while New Delhi, Wuhan, Mumbai, Manila and Jakarta sit at the bottom of the 50 survey cities.
Seoul performs particularly well on the people sub-index, reaching second place globally. In part this is due to strong performing transport infrastructure, which is second only to another city in the region, Melbourne. Meanwhile, Hong Kong leads the way on university education and life expectancy, and offers its people the highest percentage of green space.
The Index showed that high working hours (20 percent higher than the global average) and a consistently poor work-life balance hold Asian cities back from performing stronger on its people factors.
It is therefore unsurprising, according to the authors, that some Asian cities perform well in the profit sub-index, with many scoring highly on their importance to global networks. Of all the cities studied, Singapore and Hong Kong are the world’s best performing for the ease of doing business.
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@propertyguru.com.sg
