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WORKING TOGETHER

BRISTOL'S JOURNEY

TO BECOME A EUROPEAN GREEN CAPITAL

A collective, long-term commitment to creating sustainable communities

European Green Capital Bristol’s aspiration to be a European The creation of the European Green Capital
is an annual Award that’s Green Capital was first set out in 2003 Award was the third critical ingredient
in the Bristol Community Strategy: “
of success. This enabled us to compare
run by the European Bristol; a green capital in Europe – creating performance against other European cities,
Commission. It exists sustainable communities and improving identifying our strengths and weaknesses
to promote and reward the quality of life”. The Local Strategic and helping us to focus our learning and
improvement. The Award also gave us a
Partnership was a statutory partnership,
the efforts of cities to comprising public, private, business, short-term focus, not a goal, but a clear
improve the environment, voluntary and community organisations. focus which many stakeholders could
and recognises that A collective approach to Bristol’s relate to much better than the long-term
goal of creating a sustainable city. It is
sustainable, low-carbon environment has been one of the key crucial that we remember that winning
living is vital to our strengths and contributors to Bristol’s the award was never Bristol’s goal, it was
shared future. success. The creation of the Bristol Green an enabler, a convenor and a catalyst for
Capital Partnership, as part of the wider
change in our city. Change that would
Bristol Partnership, was an important step realise that original aspiration of creating
The European Green Capital in translating that aspiration into reality. sustainable communities and improving
Award has been running since It brought together some of the key the quality of life.
2010, and the first winner was organisations already working to make
Stockholm, followed by Hamburg, Bristol a greener city. The growth of this So Bristol was able to bring together its
Vitoria-Gasteiz, Nantes and partnership into the largest of its kind in the strong environmental performance as a
Copenhagen. Bristol was the world shows us both the commitment of city and the collective energy of hundreds
first UK city to win the award, Bristol and also the success of this initiative. of organisations and thousands of people
and Ljubljana is European Green to win the award. Winning the award was
Capital for 2016. Bristol is the UK’s most sustainable city, recognition for the hard work of many
and over the past decade we have become people and organisations across the city
There is more information about the a greener city, right across the board. and the year has partly been a celebration
award on the European Commission This hard work from many organisations of that – but a celebration with a purpose.
website: ec.europa.eu/environment/ and people across the city is the bedrock
europeangreencapital/ of our green capital initiative. Improving We had great commitment to this
Bristolians’ quality of life and reducing celebration from around the city but
Bristol’s environmental footprint have making the most of the opportunity also
been strategic priorities which have needed time and money, both of which
been implemented by successive were limited!
political leaders. The illustration on the
opposite page brings to life just some of
these achievements.

8 BRISTOL EUROPEAN GREEN CAPITAL 2015 CITYWIDE REVIEW