Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index Report
Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index Report
Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index Report
CITIES INDEX
2015
Sustainable
Cities Index
2015
www.arcadis.com
Page 3
Contents
1
Forewords
Executive Summary
Further reading
Sustainable
Cities Index
London
2015
1.
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ARCADIS View
The Age of the City
Our world is changing at a faster pace than ever before.
concept of the global city has swiftly taken hold. As our planet
very much the norm. Love them or avoid them, we are now
A city is much more than just a place for people to live and
John J Batten
ARCADIS
Sustainable
Cities Index
2015
Guest Foreword
We are living in the century of the
city, but are we living in the century
of the sustainable city?
The Sustainable Cities Index endeavors to
answer this seemingly simple but actually
quite complex question for 50 world cities
from 31 countries around the world.
Today, cities dominate in population numbers (54% of the
total), economic output (70-80%), energy consumption (80%)
and greenhouse gas production (80%). Notably, as this index
demonstrates, the more sustainable an urban area is, the
higher the quality of life, greater prosperity and lower per
capita greenhouse gas production it possesses. With more than
a quarter-of-a-million cities worldwide, understanding their
successes and failures in terms of sustainability through easily
accessible measures may seem to be an insurmountable task.
However, this index shows the way.
settlements SDGs.
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The Sustainable
Cities Index not only
benchmarks individual
places today but offers
a roadmap for future
improvements
Sustainable
Cities Index
2015
2.
Executive Summary
In a rapidly urbanizing world, the way in which cities are planned, built,
operated and redefined has a huge social, environmental and economic
impact
City leaders need to find ways to balance the demands of generating strong
financial returns, being an attractive place for people to live and work in,
whilst also limiting their damage to the environment
The first ARCADIS Sustainable Cities Index explores these three demands
of People, Planet and Profit to develop an indicative ranking of 50 of the
worlds leading cities
Across the world, cities are performing better for being sustainable for
Profit and Planet purposes, but are failing to sufficiently meet the needs of
their People
No utopian city exists, rather, city leaders face a difficult task balancing the
three pillars of sustainability
Well established, European cities come top of the overall rankings, with
Frankfurt in first place, followed by London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and
Rotterdam
Asian cities show the most divergence, with Seoul, Hong Kong and
Singapore in the top ten and Manila, Mumbai, Wuhan and New Delhi
forming four of the bottom five cites
No North American city makes it into the top ten. Toronto is the highest
ranked at 12th, Boston (15th) and Chicago (19th) are the most sustainable
US cities
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The trade-off between Planet and Profit is most starkly seen in the Middle
East where Dubai and Doha score much higher in Profit than Planet
sustainability where they rank in the bottom four
In South America, Santiago (30th) and So Paulo (31st) are the two highest
ranking cities
The German cities of Frankfurt and Berlin lead the way in the Planet subranking, scoring well for waste management and low levels of air pollution
in particular
Frankfurt also leads the Profit ranking, along with London and Hong Kong.
US cities perform significantly better for Profit factors San Francisco (6th)
is the highest ranked, and all the US cities appear in the top half of the
table
Cities in the Middle East have seen the highest real term population growth
over the past five years, with Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi experiencing a
rise of over 30%
City leaders in all 50 cities must plan for population increases over the
coming 15 years, but the pressure on some is immense. Whilst Tokyos
citizens are expected to increase by just 1% by 2030, Nairobis
population will grow by 121% and Shanghai will grow by 54% to over
30 million people
Sustainable
Cities Index
3.
2015
Sustainable Cities
Index
3.1. What do we mean by
sustainability?
sources such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the World
many others.
3.2. Methodology
city. The cities included within this report were selected to provide
sustainability challenges.
their performance.
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People
Planet
Profit
Captures environmental
Assesses business
including quality
of life
and pollution
performance
Sustainable
Cities Index
2015
Figure 1:
Frankfurt tops the overall sustainability index
1
2
3
Frankfurt
London
Copenhagen
4
5
6
7
8
9
Amsterdam
Rotterdam
Berlin
Seoul
Hong Kong
Madrid
10
11
12
13
Singapore
Sydney
Toronto
Brussels
14
15
Manchester
Boston
16
17
18
Paris
Melbourne
Birmingham
19
20
Chicago
New York
21
22
23
24
Houston
Philadelphia
Tokyo
Rome
25
Washington
26
27
28
29
Kuala Lumpur
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Dallas
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
Santiago
So Paulo
Mexico City
Dubai
Abu Dhabi
Shanghai
Istanbul
37
38
39
Johannesburg
Buenos Aires
Beijing
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
Rio de Janeiro
Doha
Moscow
Jeddah
Riyadh
Jakarta
Manila
Mumbai
48
49
50
Wuhan
New Delhi
Nairobi
Key
People Planet Profit
Source: Cebr analysis
Hong Kong
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sustainability.
Sustainable
Cities Index
2015
Frankfurt
Germany
People 9
Planet 1
Profit 1
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London
19
United Kingdom
USA
People 18
Planet 29
Profit 12
People 3
Planet 12
Profit 2
Chicago
Sustainable
Cities Index
2015
3.4. People
The People sub-index, presented in Figure 2, measures the social performance of the city, that is, the interaction between a city and
its community. To investigate this, The Sustainable Cities Index uses nine separate indicators, all of which influence the quality of
life enjoyed within the city. The top 10 is dominated by European cities, with seven of the top ten coming from this continent. In
these cities, transportation infrastructure is typically quite good the average commuting time amongst the top ten, for example, is
around ten per cent lower than amongst the 50 cities overall. London, Berlin and Manchester are slight exceptions here, however,
and have the lowest transport indicator scores amongst the top ten.
Rotterdam rises to the top
perspective.
international educational
institutions. By contrast,
transport infrastructure
transport infrastructure in
in comparison to many
Index.
50 cities contributed to a
balance.
Rotterdam
Netherlands
People 1
Planet 5
Profit 19
transport infrastructure,
education provisions
higher.
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Figure 2:
26
Malaysia
Rotterdam
Seoul
London
Sydney
Copenhagen
Hong Kong
Amsterdam
Melbourne
Frankfurt
Berlin
Brussels
Manchester
Boston
Madrid
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
Toronto
Singapore
Birmingham
Chicago
Beijing
Paris
Tokyo
Shanghai
Kuala Lumpur
Philadelphia
Abu Dhabi
Dubai
Houston
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Dallas
Moscow
Rome
New York
Doha
Washington
Buenos Aires
Jeddah
Santiago
So Paulo
Istanbul
Johannesburg
Riyadh
Mexico City
Jakarta
Wuhan
Rio de Janeiro
Manila
Mumbai
New Delhi
Nairobi
Kuala
Lumpur
People 23
Planet 24
Profit 22
Key
Sustainable
Cities Index
2015
3.5. Planet
The sub-index measuring environmental performance, which focuses on resource consumption, resource disposal and risk of
exposure to natural catastrophes, is the second component of the overall measure. The top ten features many European cities, with
only Singapore and Toronto coming from outside the continent. The two German entrants are at the top of the list.
Generally, the US cities fare
prevalence of sandstorms
generation.
waste-to-energy conversion,
Doha.
especially Wuhan,
composting or converting
waste.
manufacturing industries.
London, Amsterdam,
no record of experiencing
Coverage is universal in
solutions.
All the Middle Eastern
entrants use virtually
no renewable energy,
unsurprisingly given their
Waste management
abundance of hydrocarbon
Organization measures in
environmentally friendly
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Figure 3:
20
New York
USA
Frankfurt
Berlin
Copenhagen
Madrid
Rotterdam
Amsterdam
Singapore
Rome
Toronto
Birmingham
Paris
London
Seoul
Manchester
Brussels
So Paulo
Rio de Janeiro
Sydney
Hong Kong
New York
Boston
Washington
Melbourne
Kuala Lumpur
Buenos Aires
Mexico City
Santiago
Tokyo
Chicago
Houston
Philadelphia
Istanbul
Shanghai
Manila
Johannesburg
Mumbai
San Francisco
Jakarta
Jeddah
Riyadh
Moscow
Dallas
Los Angeles
Abu Dhabi
Nairobi
Beijing
Dubai
Wuhan
New Delhi
Doha
People 33
Planet 20
Profit 13
New York City is the largest city in the United States and
is a global hub of international business and commerce.
The city has a comprehensive plan, PlaNYC, to help
improve the quality of life for generations to come.
The plan sets out targets to have the cleanest air in
the nation, fortify waterfronts and waterways, clean
contaminated land, and ensure all New Yorkers live
within a 10-minute walk of a park. Originally launched in
2007, the plan is overseen by the Mayors Office of LongTerm Planning and Sustainability and the Mayors Office
of Recovery and Resiliency.
In 2014 a progress report on PlaNYC was published
which highlighted some major successes including:
Key
Energy use and renewables mix
Natural catastrophe exposure Air pollution
Greenhouse gas emissions Solid waste management
Drinking water and sanitation
Source: Cebr analysis
underutilized sites.
Sustainable
Cities Index
43
2015
Jeddah
31
Saudi Arabia
Brazil
People 39
Planet 16
Profit 39
People 37
Planet 39
Profit 41
So Paulo
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So Paulo is the
second ranked
city overall in
Latin America
Sustainable
Cities Index
2015
3.6. Profit
The Profit sub-index aims to capture economic sustainability. On this measure three of the worlds largest financial centers lead:
Frankfurt comes first, followed by London and Hong Kong. Many well-known commercial and financial centers are impacted by
the high cost of doing business, as measured by the cost of living and of property Tokyo, New York and San Francisco would each
receive higher scores if not for this.
Shanghai, mainland
Economic development
is under construction in
indicators.
doing business.
So Paulos score is
on average. Rotterdams
respect.
investment is underway to
economic output.
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Figure 4:
Well-known financial centers come top, with some big
names held back by expensive office space
1
2
Frankfurt
London
3
4
Hong Kong
Amsterdam
5
6
Melbourne
Seoul
7
8
San Francisco
Brussels
9
10
11
Singapore
Madrid
Copenhagen
12
13
Chicago
New York
14
15
Boston
Houston
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Sydney
Los Angeles
Toronto
Rotterdam
Philadelphia
Manchester
Kuala Lumpur
23
24
Dallas
Tokyo
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
Washington
Berlin
Dubai
Paris
Birmingham
Doha
Mexico City
Johannesburg
Santiago
Abu Dhabi
Rome
36
37
38
Istanbul
Beijing
Shanghai
39
So Paulo
40
41
42
Manila
Jeddah
Buenos Aires
43
44
45
Jakarta
Riyadh
Moscow
46
Rio de Janeiro
47
48
49
Mumbai
New Delhi
Nairobi
50
Wuhan
Key
Transport infrastructure Energy efficiency Economic
development Ease of doing business
Cost of doing business
Importance to global networks
Singapore
Sustainable
Cities Index
2015
Los Angeles
28
USA
People 29
Planet 43
Profit 17
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10
Singapore
Asia-Pacific
People 16
Planet 7
Profit 8
change agenda.
Sustainable
Cities Index
2015
4.
Global urbanization
challenges
The challenges cities face are large and varied since sustainable
short term from 2010 to 2015, but have among the highest
Sustainable Cities Index are the ones that will come under
will see growth of more than 60% over this time period. This
land values, unless these cities work hard to keep up with the
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Table 1:
Selection of the worlds
largest cities with growth
rates and ranking in the
Sustainable Cities Index
Sustainable Cities
Index 2015 rank
City
Population, thousands
2010
2030
Expansion 20102015 %
Expansion 20102030 %
41
Doha
529
837
36%
58%
33
Dubai
1,778
3,471
36%
95%
34
Abu Dhabi
879
1,608
30%
83%
39
Beijing
16,190
27,706
26%
71%
44
Riyadh
5,227
7,940
22%
52%
50
Nairobi
3,237
7,140
21%
121%
35
Shanghai
19,980
30,751
19%
54%
43
Jeddah
3,452
4,988
18%
44%
26
Kuala Lumpur
5,810
9,423
18%
62%
37
Johannesburg
7,992
11,573
18%
45%
49
New Delhi
21,935
36,060
17%
64%
21
Houston
4,976
6,729
13%
35%
36
Istanbul
12,703
16,694
11%
31%
29
Dallas
5,149
6,683
11%
30%
10
Singapore
5,079
6,578
11%
30%
12
Toronto
5,499
6,957
9%
27%
46
Manila
11,891
16,756
9%
41%
47
Mumbai
19,422
27,797
8%
43%
25
Washington
4,604
5,690
8%
24%
45
Jakarta
31
So Paulo
Madrid
9,630
13,812
7%
43%
19,660
23,444
7%
19%
5,787
6,707
7%
16%
14,246
16,956
7%
19%
28%
38
Buenos Aires
17
Melbourne
3,951
5,071
6%
Copenhagen
1,192
1,455
6%
22%
London
9,699
11,467
6%
18%
42
Moscow
11,461
12,200
6%
6%
Wuhan
7,515
9,442
5%
26%
681
774
5%
14%
1,958
2,203
4%
12%
48
1
Frankfurt
13
Brussels
32
Mexico City
20,132
23,865
4%
19%
40
Rio de Janeiro
12,374
14,174
4%
15%
14
Manchester
2,538
2,968
4%
17%
30
Santiago
6,269
7,122
4%
14%
Hong Kong
7,050
7,885
4%
12%
8
16
Paris
10,460
11,803
4%
13%
18
Birmingham
2,429
2,808
4%
16%
24
Rome
3,592
3,842
4%
7%
Department of Economic
11
Sydney
4,364
5,301
3%
21%
Green:
high ranking & lower
population growth
Red:
1,057
1,213
3%
15%
23
Amsterdam
Tokyo
36,834
37,190
3%
1%
Berlin
3,475
3,658
3%
5%
22
Philadelphia
5,449
6,158
2%
13%
15
Boston
4,185
4,671
2%
12%
19
Chicago
8,616
9,493
1%
10%
20
New York
18,365
19,885
1%
8%
28
Los Angeles
12,160
13,257
1%
9%
27
San Francisco
3,283
3,615
1%
10%
9,796
9,960
0%
2%
996
1,077
0%
8%
Seoul
population growth
Rotterdam
Sustainable
Cities Index
2015
41
Doha
Qatar
People 34
Planet 50
Profit 30
environment.
for pedestrians and street life and for a country that relies on
The country has both the highest per capita income and per
a growth plan to grow more of its own food while sharing its
natural gas wealth for the benefit of its 300,000 citizens and
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Shanghai
35
China
People 22
Planet 33
Profit 38
Sustainable
Cities Index
5.
2015
Moving towards a
more sustainable city
A huge volume of work has been done to research, analyze,
sustainable future.
sustainable cities?
ARCADIS is involved in many of these forums including the
World Urban Campaign, the World Business Council for
Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the C40 Connecting
Delta Cities Network and Eurbanlab. All of these initiatives,
in addition to the many others, offer valuable insight into the
ways in which cities can thrive.
Balancing priorities
Taking the framework for a sustainable city being to find a
balance between People, Planet and Profit, we can see from
the research in this report that no city has been able to achieve
top ratings for all criteria. This is understandable in that each
city is unique, so there is, rightly, no one-size-fits-all solution.
Instead, we can see that a city needs to have a clear vision
for what it wants to be and set a roadmap for how it can get
requirements.
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Figure 5:
Sustainability Target Assessment Rating Framework
Source: ARCADIS
L-BEING
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Sustainable
Cities Index
2015
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Figure 6:
Sample city clusters by issue, region or ambition
Source: ARCADIS
Region
North America
Chicago
Dallas
Houston
Los Angeles
Boston
San Francisco
Toronto
Washington
New York
Frankfurt
Ambition
Global financial center
Hong Kong
London
Shanghai
Singapore
Tokyo
Copenhagen
Jakarta
Melbourne
Rio de Janeiro
Rotterdam
Issue
Delta Cities
Sustainable
Cities Index
2015
they will see the fastest population growth over the coming
them. For example, the Planet indicators show that cities that
which brings into focus the real challenges that lie ahead to
with very high land costs. For long term economic and social
sustainable future.
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New York
Sustainable
Cities Index
6.
2015
Appendix: methodology
and data sources
Methodology
Disclaimer
sub-index; six for the Planet sub-index and six for the Profit
and Business Research Ltd nor ARCADIS will be liable for any
About ARCADIS
ARCADIS is the leading global natural and built asset design
& consultancy firm working in partnership with our clients
to deliver exceptional and sustainable outcomes through the
application of design, consultancy, engineering, project and
management services. ARCADIS differentiates through its
talented and passionate people and its unique combination of
capabilities covering the whole asset life cycle, its deep market
sector insights and its ability to integrate health & safety and
sustainability into the design and delivery of solutions across
the globe. We are 28,000 people that generate 3 billion
in revenues. We support UN-Habitat with knowledge and
expertise to improve the quality of life in rapidly growing cities
around the world. www.arcadis.com
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Table 2:
Sustainable cities indicators
Indicator
People
Literacy
Source
Description
Education
Green spaces
Health
Dependency ratio
Income inequality
Work-life balance
Property prices
Public transport
Commuting time
Airport satisfaction
Energy consumption
Transport
infrastructure
(composed of--)
Rail infrastructure
Renewable consumption
Planet
Profit
Natural catastrophe
exposure
Air pollution
Greenhouse gas
emissions
Solid waste
management
World Bank
Rates of landfill/recycling/compost/
waste-to-energy of solid waste
Drinking water
and Sanitation
(composed of)
Drinking water
Sanitation
Energy efficiency
Importance to
global networks
Brookings institute
Ease of doing
business
Cost of doing
business
Sustainable
Cities Index
2015
7.
Further reading
Global Infrastructure
Index
Investment Index
International Construction
Costs
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