The ARCADIS Sustainable Cities Index explores the three demands of People, Planet and Profit to develop an indicative ranking of 50 of the world’s leading cities.

European cities come top of the overall rankings, with Frankfurt in first place, followed by London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Rotterdam.  Whilst no Australian cities made it into the top ten, Sydney was ranked at #11 and Melbourne #17.

In a rapidly urbanising 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 research examines 50 cities from 31 countries ranking them across a range of indicators to estimate the sustainability of each city.  The index categories are:

• People – social performance including quality of life
• Planet – environmental factors like energy emissions and pollution
• Profit – business environment and economic performance

In total, 20 input indicators were taken into account to compile the Sustainable Cities Index, comprising nine for the People sub-index; six for the Planet sub-index and six for the Profit sub-index (property prices appearing twice).

ARCADIS is a global natural and built asset design & consultancy firm, supporting UN-Habitat with knowledge and expertise to improve the quality of life in rapidly growing cities around the world.

For more information, go to the ARCADIS Sustainable Cities Index website.

Download the full report here.