50 percent of the people working and living in Copenhagen use their bike with a total avoided cost of an estimated $43 million and in just 9 years the prices of apartments close to the new public harbor bath has increased by 57 percent while apartments in the same area of town but further from the harbor only increased by 12 percent. These are just some of the benefits that can be attracted from Copenhagen’s green city strategy.

As the green ambitions flourish in cities all over the world, new societal and economic potentials of ambitious green city planning are becoming more and more evident. The study “Copenhagen: Beyond Green – the socioeconomic benefits of being a green city”, which was released last week by Green Growth Leaders, is the first of its kind to examine the concrete economic and social benefits of making an ambitious green city strategy reality. It looks at the concrete results and positive outcome of Copenhagen’s green strategic urban planning and environmental ambitions for the city as a whole.

The study documents that Copenhagen’s green city strategy has not only brought great reductions in the CO2 emissions, decreased pollution, created several green jobs and produced annual growth rates of an impressive 12 percent in the green sector. The city’s green ambitions have also triggered a great improvement of the quality of life for the citizens of Copenhagen and created growth, export and job opportunities throughout the entire economy of the city – not just in the clean-tech sector.

”A key challenge is to create a city that can sustain both economic and sustainable growth. In Copenhagen we do both. We will continue to develop a city where people enjoy living because it is clean and healthy and offers attracting surroundings for our families, young and old. At the same time we will stimulate economic growth in the clean tech sector”, says Frank Jensen, Lord Mayor of Copenhagen.

Read the full study here, and view City of Copenhagens profile on stateofgreen.com here.