Researchers have ranked the UK’s 25 biggest cities by population for sustainability – and Sheffield has topped the list.
In determining this a wide range of factors were looked at including protection of green space, car and energy use, waste and recycling and air quality data in the comprehensive study.
Speaking about Sheffield gaining the title of UK’s most environmentally friendly city, Labour Council Leader Terry Fox said:
“I’m delighted, but not surprised, that Sheffield has been come out on top spot of the Green City report.
“Tackling the climate emergency and making the city more sustainable isn’t just something that’s recently become important to the council – we’ve been leading the way for years.
“Our approach has always been to enact radical action to make the city more sustainable – but doing so in a way that is a fair and just.
“For the last ten years Labour councillors have led the council to deliver some of fantastic projects, including the multi-award-winning ‘Grey to Green’ scheme which has helped to transform the city centre with new cycling and walking routes.
“I think we should also give much more credit to the fantastic work of the Energy Recover Facility and the district heating network. Rather than letting waste be put in landfill the Energy Recovery Facility takes rubbish from black wheelie bins and generates electricity for the National Grid – producing heat for the city’s innovative District Energy Network.
“Because of this less than 0.5% of black bin waste is sent to landfill, and even the city’s bin lorries are powered by the very waste they have collected!
“Labour councillors also made Sheffield the first local authority in England to ban fracking applications on council owned land, and the council’s well underway to achieving our target of planting a 100,000 extra trees.
“We don’t rest on our laurels though, and you can see that with the new Clean Air Zone coming in – we’ve worked hard to make sure it cleans up the city’s air but that private vehicles are except, and that the right financial support is available for businesses to make the upgrades they need.
“If Sheffield Green Party Councillors had their way private vehicles would be getting hit with a costly charge. We think a better approach is making sure that sustainability policies are enacted in a just and fair manner – but which still delivers real results. The fact that Sheffield is now ranked the UK’s greenest city shows we must be doing something right with this approach.
Here are the UK’s greenest cities, ranked in order according to NatWest’s Green Cities report.
1 Sheffield
2 Edinburgh
3 Cardiff
4 Brighton & Hove
5 Bristol
6 Leeds
7 Glasgow
8 Nottingham
9 Newcastle upon Tyne
10 Belfast
11 London
12 Salford
13 Manchester
14 Derby
15 Wakefield
16 Liverpool
17 Plymouth
18 Bradford
19 Stoke-on-Trent
20 Birmingham
21 Hull
22 Leicester
23 Coventry
24 Sunderland
25 Wolverhampton
