Where are the UK’s greenest towns and cities?

From charity shops to recycling, growing your own produce to being a veggie, there are plenty of ways to lower your carbon footprint. But where are the UK’s greenest towns and cities?

Garden of Life has ranked 30 of the UK’s biggest towns and cities on a variety of green factors to determine the UK’s most eco-friendly places.

And London ranks at #22.

When looking at the different green factors, London has the following:
721 allotments which is 8.1 per 100,000 people
1,130 charity shops which is 12.7 per 100,000 people
4,807 vegan-friendly restaurants which is 54.2 per 100,000 people
8,407 vegetarian-friendly restaurants which is 94.8 per 100,000 people
33.4% recycling rate
17.7% of people cycle at least once a month

Resulting in an overall score of 3.50 out of 10, meaning London ranks at #22.

Brighton is crowned the UK’s most eco-friendly city, with an overall score of 6.79 out of 10. In second place is Bristol, which was actually named ‘European Green Capital’ back in 2015 and takes second place in our ranking, with a score of 6.54 out of 10.
The highest scoring Northern city on our list was Newcastle upon Tyne, with a score of 5.95 out of 10. ‘The Toon’ had the highest rate of allotments per person and scored highly across the board.

A spokesperson at Garden of Life commented on the research:

“Due to climate change it’s now important more than ever that we all start to make some eco-friendly choices in our lives. Whether that’s growing our own food, making sure we recycle or cutting down our meat intake in our diet.

“As we can see from our research, some areas of the UK are very environmentally aware and are leading the way with their greener choices. It’s great to see London ranked in the top 30 eco-friendly towns and cities and we hope other areas of the UK follow suit.”