Corporate Knights Magazine has unveiled its second-annual Sustainable Cities Ranking list. The comprehensive ranking identifies Canadian cities whose practices leave the smallest environmental footprint possible and create a healthy, thriving population.
The top cities in the 2008 Corporate Knights Sustainable Cities Ranking are as follows:
Large city category: Ottawa, ON
Medium city category: Quebec, QC
Small city category: Yellowknife, NT
Corporate Knights examined 18 cities, including Canada’s top 10 cities by population and the largest city in each province and territory. This year’s ranking added more indicators that are under municipal jurisdiction, and grouped the cities into three categories based on population to ensure proper comparison. Corporate Knights also surveyed the cities to give them the opportunity to share their own sustainability initiatives.
Cities were assessed based on five broad equally weighted categories: Ecological Integrity, Green Mobility, Economic Security, Empowerment, and Social Well-Being. Publicly available information, including Statistics Canada data, as well as city surveys, was used to determine city scores out of 10.
Examples of prominent city practices include installing LED traffic lights to reduce energy consumption, moving towards increased local food procurement, and promoting LEED-standard buildings.
The full results of the ranking, including the surveys completed by each city, are available on www.corporateknights.ca
