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Newcastle named Britain's most sustainable city
19/11/09
Edited by Andy Jowett. Newcastle upon Tyne has been named the UK's most sustainable city in a new report by thinktank Forum for the Future.
The city beat 19 of the country's largest conurbations to the title, pushing previous winners Bristol and Brighton into second and third place respectively.
Forum for the Future's sustainability rankings are based on 13 indicators across three broad categories - environmental impact, quality of life for residents and preparedness for future challenges such as climate change.
The thinktank said Newcastle had claimed the top spot by doing "fairly well across the whole set of indicators" rather than excelling in some areas but falling short in others.
It added that overall, there was an "encouraging trend" among cities towards shrinking ecological footprints, with less land now required to provide each person with food, transport, a residential property and goods and services.
Nevertheless, the organisation said the figure still needs to be more than halved from its current level of five hectares to two hectares to achieve "one planet living".
According to the World Wildlife Fund, if everyone on Earth lived like the average European, humans would need the resources of three planets to live.
