While sustainability is becoming increasingly important in our personal lives, some are looking to make an impact through their work. The cities we settle and evolve professionally in are at the forefront of making the world a greener place, but which ones in the UK are doing the best job of creating a sustainable place to work?
To find out, the team at salary sacrifice company, The Electric Car Scheme, has compared data from the UK’s top cities, looking at metrics including the number of electric vehicles on the roads, the number of charging devices available or the number of ‘green’ jobs among others, to determine the greenest cities to work in.
The UK’s top 10 cities for eco-conscious employees
| Rank | City | Electric vehicle registrations per 10,000 people | Number of EV chargers per 10,000 people | Number of parks
per 10,000 people |
Emissions per km²
(kt CO₂e) |
Air pollution score
(100 = worst) |
Number of ‘green’ jobs
per 10,000 people |
Green City Total Score |
| 1 | Edinburgh | 60 | 6 | 1.63 | 7.6 | 25.75 | 21 | 6.79 |
| 2 | Leeds | 75 | 9 | 1.78 | 6.4 | 45.95 | 18 | 6.77 |
| 3 | Bradford | 51 | 5 | 1.64 | 5.3 | 54.17 | 13 | 5.45 |
| 4 | Manchester | 27 | 4 | 1.69 | 16.2 | 50.00 | 39 | 5.41 |
| 5 | Coventry | 25 | 25 | 0.95 | 12.1 | 42.19 | 15 | 5.33 |
| 6 | Swansea | 28 | 4 | 0.70 | 2.3 | 20.00 | 13 | 5.12 |
| 7 | Sunderland | 27 | 5 | 0.83 | 7.9 | 12.50 | 10 | 5.00 |
| 8 | Plymouth | 24 | 5 | 1.15 | 10.4 | 26.19 | 18 | 4.99 |
| 9 | Belfast | 27 | 3 | 1.06 | 10.3 | 23.12 | 17 | 4.89 |
| 10 | Sheffield | 31 | 2 | 1.12 | 5.4 | 30.21 | 8 | 4.76 |
Key findings from the study:
- Edinburgh is named the UK’s greenest city to work in with an overall sustainability score of 6.79 out of 10, 60 private EV registrations per 10,000 people and low emission levels (6.4 per km²).
- On the other hand, Nottingham is named the least sustainable city in the UK with the lowest overall score of 2.52.
- Manchester offers the highest number of roles listed as ‘green’ jobs per 10,000 people, with 39.11.
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