The UK’s top 20 cities for great green habits

There are plenty of green habits that we can undertake to help reduce emissions, and we all like to think we’re doing our bit for the environment. But have you ever wondered how much your city is contributing to combat the effects of climate change?

“Have you ever wondered how much your city is contributing to combat the effects of climate change?”

Whether it be an approach they’re undertaking currently, or even using behavioural insights to understand how and where they need to implement changes in the future, you can be sure that councils across the UK are working to make improvements.

This is something which the LGA (Local Government Association) has summed up through their 'Pass the Planet' campaign which was presented at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow.

WHERE DO WE START?

We believe a good place to start making a difference would be within emissions, specifically those which come from petrol-powered gardening equipment. A report put together by Challenge 2025 showed that 89% of UK councils are still using petrol tools to maintain public spaces - using over 600,000 litres of petrol every year.

Alas, we also know that petrol is a hard habit to break. So, we looked at other green habits that might counterbalance emissions. Outside of the power tools sector, there’s a compelling tale to be told by data on walking and cycling, which are accessible activities that also help cut domestic emissions.

We’ve gathered data from various UK city councils, from modes of transport, to recycling trends, to see which cities in the UK are leading the way when it comes to great green habits, and those who might want to revisit their commitments to lowering emissions and sustainability.

Not only this, we also included data on households which sort their recyclable waste ready for kerbside collection too, because this is an easy task everyone can get involved in. (Unfortunately, whether local authorities commit to it too is another matter.)

So, based on this information, let’s look at the results.

Green habits rank

1. Cardiff
2. Manchester
3. City of London
4. Newcastle
5. Brighton
6. Southampton & Portsmouth
7. Bournemouth & Poole
8. Liverpool
9. Coventry
10. Reading
11. Leicester
12. Edinburgh
13. Leeds
14. Birmingham
15. Sheffield
16. Middlesbrough
17. Belfast
18. Stoke-on-Trent
19. Sunderland
20. Glasgow

Overall findings

We ranked each for performance on walking, cycling and recycling. However, we also looked at data for accessible green space and CO2 emissions.

• Some cities are great at everything.
• Others standout for one good habit.
• A large group hasn’t formed these 3 strong habits.
• Cities at the bottom of the list have disappointing data.
• There are no clear regional patterns.
• There is a tenuous North/South divide.
• Overall engagement is mostly underwhelming.

It’s impossible to simplify such complexity so the overall rankings must be taken with a pinch of salt. However, if the data gives us a single takeaway, it’s that there’s room for improving our green habits - for all cities, in fact.

“If the data gives us a single takeaway, it’s that there’s room for improving our green habits - for all cities, in fact.”

Footnotes

Methodology

We created an index of each ranking factor:

• Percentage of population that use cycling as a main mode of transport
• Percentage of population that walk as the main mode of transport
• Recycling rate;

where the index is the median of the region or city data (e.g. percentage of population that use cycling as a main mode of transport, percentage of population that walk as the main mode of transport and recycling rate) compared to all other regions or cities data.

The overall rank of the cities from 1-20 was calculated using the sum of each green ranking factor index.

Data

• Average population size of the UK’s largest 20 cities is 1,338,274.05
• Emissions data exclude large industrial sites, railways, motorways and land-use

Sources

Population data

• Statista was used to work out the largest city  populations. However, for calculating rankings, we used data from official sources below.

Cycling & walking

• Walking and cycling to/from work in Northern Ireland 2018/19 | Department for Infrastructure 
• Transport and Travel in Scotland 2019: Results from the Scottish Household Survey 
• Active travel (walking and cycling): April 2019 to March 2020 | GOV.WALES 
• Walking and cycling statistics - GOV.UK 

Recycling

• Annual reuse/recycling/composting rates by local authority 
• Data on the generation and management of Scottish household waste | Informatics
• ENV19 - Quarterly local authority collected waste management statistics - GOV.UK 

Emissions

• UK local authority and regional carbon dioxide emissions national statistics: 2005 to 2019 - GOV.UK 
• Climate change: EU to cut CO2 emissions by 55% by 2030
• Local Authority CO2 interactive maps - NAEI, UK

Green spaces

• Green Space Index | Fields in Trust 
• Financial impact of COVID-19 on parks and green spaces - Leeds City Council | Local Government Association 
• Urban extent - Office for National Statistics 
• Newcastle Open Space Assessment 2016 – 2030 

Emissions

• UK local authority and regional carbon dioxide emissions national statistics: 2005 to 2019 - GOV.UK 

North-South divide 

• North–South divide in England