The Volkswagen city of Wolfsburg has again topped the rankings in a recent survey of Germany's most sustainable cities, based on a mixture of ecological, social and economic criteria. Wolfsburg was followed by the southern cities of Ulm, Heidelberg, Erlangen and Ingolstadt in the Top 5. The Ruhr area in North Rhine-Westphalia was a big loser in the survey, with all its cities in the bottom half of the list.
The German City Sustainability Index, carried out by IW Consult of Cologne on behalf of property portal ImmoScout24 and business magazine WirtschaftsWoche, is based on the UN principles for sustainable development, and analyses Germany's 71 largest conurbations ("kreisfreie Großstädte"), those with over 100,000 inhabitants. More than 100 indicators are assessed per city for the individual evaluation, including input from ImmobilienScout24's extensive data base on property rent and price levels.
Dr. Gesa Crockford, managing director of ImmoScout24, said: "Large cities are home to about a third of the German population and accordingly bear a special responsibility when it comes to sustainability. In the area of ecology, for example, cities can make a major contribution by expanding cycling infrastructure and designating areas for renewable energies."
Wolfsburg emerges yet again as the most sustainable city in Germany, based on the key sustainability criteria. It scored particularly well on economic factors, with a large proportion of R&D employees, a high density of engineers and a large number of patent applications. On ecology, the city placed 4th, largely as a result of having the highest density of electric filling stations, and its heavy focus on decarbonisation, particularly in the building sector. It placed 8th in the area of social affairs, with a well-rated education system, a high rate of female employment, and a low rate of old-age poverty.
Ulm moves up to 2nd place, from last year's 5th, thanks to its first-place showing in ecology and social affairs, boosted by solar power (2nd), charging stations (6th), alternative heating energy (7th), and wind power (8th). Near-neighbour Munich, by contrast, ranked 67th on solar output, and Berlin 70th on the same ranking. Munich and Berlin are also penalised by having a high rate of old-age poverty (58th and 59th, respectively).
Cities in Germany's industrial heartland of the Ruhr will not have been encouraged by the latest index rankings. At the bottom end of the table, four Ruhr cities bring up the rear - Oberhausen, Herne, Duisburg and Gelsenkirchen. On the social factor, Gelsenkirchen performs the worst of any city, with the highest youth unemployment and the lowest employment rate for women. It is closely followed by Duisburg, which performs even worse on its economy and ecology. Duisburg scores badly on electric charging points, air quality and female employment, while Herne ranks third to last, with the worst air quality, the lowest engineering density and one of the highest youth unemployment rates among the 71 major cities in the country.
Dr. Crockford of ImmoScout24 stressed how cities that were most aggressively targeting climate goals and building more sustainably were adding to their attractiveness as places to live and work in the future. The use of sustainable heating energies is playing a crucial role in combatting rising energy prices. This shows up in the Sustainability Index, with Mannheim, Wolfsburg and Heidelberg being three major cities with a share of more than 90% alternative heating energy in their new buildings. By contrast, in six cities the share of alternative heating energy in new-built housing is less than 40% - Lübeck (39%), Kassel (36%), Salzgitter (27%), Oldenburg (23%), Osnabrück (20%) and Bremerhaven (9%). In Germany as a whole, the share of alternative heating energies in completed buildings has been rising - from a share of 56% percent in 2018, to 60% in 2020.
