Executive Summary

The Sustainable Cities Index

Executive summary

The Sustainable Cities Index ranks 100 global cities on three pillars of sustainability:
People (social), Planet (environmental) and Profit (economic).

The SCI overall findings highlight the following:

The importance of the Profit pillar as a driver for long-term sustainability

The need for mid-ranking cities to improve their performance across all pillars as a differentiator

The growing potential for cities to use the digital evolution of their service provision to promote engagement with citizens and as a key means of improving the citizen experience of city life.

London is ranked the world's most sustainable city in 2018 with particularly high scores in the People and Profit pillars. The results highlight that strengths reflected in London's status can offset challenges associated with affordability and congestion. London's Planet ranking is lower, but still in the upper quartile, reflecting air quality and waste management issues seen in other large cities.Stockholm, Edinburgh, Singapore and Vienna complete the top five in the Index. Whereas Stockholm and Vienna score highly against Planet criteria, Edinburgh is aligned more closely to the People agenda. Singapore is highest ranked in the Profit sub-index by a considerable margin.The top 20 sustainable cities are mostly established European metropolises. Additionally, representing Asia are Singapore, Hong Kong and Seoul - both well- established trading cities. New York, San Francisco and Seattle are the only U.S. cities in the top 20. Two additional cities, Tokyo and Sydney, are lower - ranking high for People, but need to improve in both Profit and Planet.Major cities across Africa and Asia are represented in the bottom 10 of the rankings. Importantly, it is the Profit performance of these cities, particularly related to ease of doing business and output that contributes to their weak relative performance. Growing a robust local economy is a critical aspect of long-term sustainability, particularly given the close association of economic performance with improved quality of life.

Stockholm, Edinburgh, Singapore and Vienna complete the top five in the Index

Although coastal cities including New York and Seattle feature in the top 20, most U.S. cities fall in the bottom half of the ranking. U.S. cities tend to score evenly across the three pillars, highlighting that these cities face broad challenges across all pillars to improve their sustainability.
In Latin America, Santiago, São Paulo, Mexico City and Buenos Aires are all tightly clustered at the top of the bottom quartile, typically scoring better in People and Planet than in the Profit pillar.Kuala Lumpur benefits from consistent scores across all pillars and outranks all the cities in China except for Shenzhen as well as a number of U.S. and European cities.Performance across the People pillar is relatively consistent across the top 50 cities. Edinburgh tops the sub-index, and the other cities have scores within +/- 10%. Affordability of city life, access to public transport and income inequality are the big swing variables. A cluster of cities at the bottom of the rankings highlights the challenge of meeting
citizen needs in many emerging economies. The affordability, health, education and digital infrastructure indicators all point to deep-seated challenges associated with improving life experiences in emerging cities.A group of smaller European cities led by Stockholm, sit at the top of the Planet sub-index. Determinants of a high ranking include low carbon energy infrastructure and significant green spaces. The expanded 2018 Index also tracks investment
in low carbon transport infrastructure, including bike sharing and electric vehicle incentives - highlighting the rapid adoption of these solutions in many cities.The Profit sub-index highlights the extreme disparities in income. The top of the sub-index is dominated by global financial centers. Singapore, London and Hong Kong head up the list and hold a sizeable lead over New York in 4th place. Sixty cities, ranging from Oslo in 15th place to Lyon in 74th place, have scores within a range of +/-20% highlighting complementary strengths in employment, tourism or ease of doing business. Ten cities, all in developing countries have a lower ranking due to challenges in output, ease of doing business and innovation infrastructure.The research features new work on city archetypes and clusters aimed at explaining the implications of a citizen experience showing a close correlation to the SCI rankings. The four city clusters used are based on an analysis of the citizen experiences of city living combined with the Index data.

The city clusters are:

Balanced Innovators: Thirty- five cities in the SCI fall into this cluster and have an average ranking of 21st. Particularly strong in People and Profit sub-indices.
Post-industrial Opportunists: Thirty-three cities in the SCI fall into this cluster and have an average ranking of 49th. Typical strengths are aligned to the People and Planet sub-indices. Cities in this cluster are mostly U.S. with some in Europe and Australia.
Evolutionary Cities: Nineteen cities in the SCI fall into this cluster and have an average ranking of 84th. Cities are particularly weak in the Profit pillar. The cluster includes highly disrupted Western cities such as Athens as well as a number of large, emerging market cities.
Fast-growing Megacities: Thirteen cities in the SCI fall into this cluster and have an average ranking of 85th. The Profit pillar is also weaker for this cluster. Cities in this cluster include very large cities from China and India.