Which cities are leading in CleanTech and ClimateTech?
New research from Savills has identified the leading global cities in the CleanTech and ClimateTech sectors.
The broker’s Tech Cities research identifies cities around the world which are succeeding in the battle to host growing technology companies. Two growing subsectors, which are also leading the fight against climate change are ClimateTech, which is focused on reducing CO2 emissions, and CleanTech, which has a wider environmental remit.
Savills ranks tech cities on a number of factors, including the business environment, the available talent pool and liveability. The ability to attract venture capital funding is important.
There are also factors specific to certain technologies. This throws up some interesting results for CleanTech and ClimateTech. Many of the top cities, such as Boston, London and Silicon Valley are leaders in tech more generally. However, some cities, such as Helsinki, Oslo and Accra, are particularly notable for their leading role in CleanTech and ClimateTech. The Nordic cities also benefit from high levels of investment in renewable energy and are leaders in sustainability.
The difficulty in scaling up ClimateTech businesses means smaller, university cities often take the lead. Cities such as Charleston and Denver in the US and Hamburg and Cambridge in Europe are taking a lead.
What makes a ‘Tech City’?
- Business environment: innovative and stable, an easy place to do business with complementary business sectors and high GDP per capita.
- Tech environment: a fast and efficient tech infrastructure , well adapted for the tech industry
- City buzz & wellness: vibrant, offering a high quality of life for residents and workers, balanced against the cost of living and air quality
- Talent pool: growing cities which are attracting talent and generating their own with world-class higher education
- Tech sector specific: the city attracts large volumes of venture capital funding, has characteristics which make it appealing to a tech sub-sector