Nairobi News

HashtagWhat's Hot

Nairobi named the most environmentally-friendly city for a getaway in Africa

June 8th, 2020 2 min read

Nairobi has been listed among the world’s top 50 environmentally-friendly cities for a getaway.

The list, compiled by international travel-booking company Tourlane, to celebrate World Environment Day, which falls in June, ranks Nairobi 14th overall and first in Africa.

Apart from Nairobi, Cape Town (South Africa) and position 41, and Marrakesh (Morocco) in 50th place are the only other African cities on this list.

Overall, Berlin top the rankings, followed by Vienna, Munich, London and Prague respectively. Rotterdam, Shenzhen Hamburg, Zurich and Budapest complete the top 10 places.

Tourlane’s researchers used eight categories to reach its conclusions, with each city being given a score out of 10 in each one for a total score out of 80. These were:

Train Accessibility – This score is based on the number of countries that are reachable by direct train. A higher score equates to a higher number of international connections. International train timetables were used to calculate this score.

Public Transport – This score is based on the length of the metro network and light rail network of each city. A higher score equates to a more extensive metro and light rail network. Data provided by the public transport networks was used to calculate this score.

Car Free – This score is based on the number of cars per 1000 inhabitants. A higher score equates to a lower number of cars per 1000 inhabitants. A leading online statistics website was used to calculate this score.

Green Space: This score is based on the percentage of the city that is made up of green space. A higher score equates to a higher percentage of green space. Tourlane used a leading online analysis of urban green space based on computer vision and deep learning techniques on satellite images.

Tourist Capacity – This score is based on the ratio of local residents to the number of international overnight visitors. Tourlane used population and visitor data provided by the cities to calculate this ratio. A higher score equates to a higher ratio of locals to visitors.

Clean Air – This score is based on the World Air Quality Index. A higher score equates to better air quality.

Renewable Energy – This score is based on the percentage of total energy consumption that comes from renewable energy. A higher score equates to a higher percentage of renewable energy usage.

Recycling: This score is based on the percentage of waste that is recycled. A higher score equates to a higher percentage of waste being recycled. Tourlane explained that Nairobi’s high scores came in the categories of low car ownership, the use of renewable energy, and its low ratio of tourists to locals.