Italy's top cities for
sustainable living are Verbania, Trento and Belluno, said
Italian environmental organisation Legambiente in its report
'Urban Ecosystem', ranking 104 Italian cities on their
environmental sustainability.
The report gave an overall picture of static cities that
are having difficulty establishing themselves in terms of
sustainability, with small steps towards recycling and renewable
energy but little progress in terms of public transport systems.
The analysis is now in its 11th year and was conducted in
collaboration with environmental consultancy Ambiente Italia and
Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore, evaluating cities on
environmental parameters such as air quality, management of
water and waste utilities, energy, mobility and public
transport.
The results showed a distinct division between the
country's north and south.
Northern cities Bolzano and Macerata rounded out the top
five, while the opposite end of the spectrum found Sicily with
four of its cities - Messina, Agrigento, Palermo and Catania -
taking up the last five places on the list together with the
Calabrian city of Vibo Valentia.
Generally speaking, smaller cities with 80,000 residents or
less did better, and the only large city to make the top 10 was
Venice, in eighth place.
The next-closest large city was Florence, further down at
43 on the list of 104, followed by Bologna at 50, Milan at 51,
Bari at 66, Rome at 83, Turin at 84, Naples at 90 and Catanzaro
at 98.
In single categories, Italy seems to be making progress in
terms of waste management, with recycling up almost 3% in 2014,
to 43.90% over the previous year's 41.15%.
Pordenone scored highest in recycling at 85.4%, followed by
Trento, Belluno and Mantua, all three of which ranked above 75%.
In terms of air quality, the study showed a slight drop in
concentrations of nitrous dioxide, particulates and ozone,
thanks in part to weather conditions that favored dispersion of
pollutants.
Frosinone got the lowest grade for fine dust and Genoa for
ozone.
The Legambiente report showed a wheezing public transport
system, with 68% of cities seeing a drop in passengers, without
an increase in bicycle paths or pedestrian-only streets.
Bolzano is the only city that manages to limit private
motorised transport to less than one-third of the total.
Small improvements were seen, however, in solar energy,
with shining performances from Salerno, Padua, Massa and Pesaro.
photo: Verbania's Botanical Gardens
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