Copenhagen. Photo: Ursula Bach

It’s wonderful living in a green city. From cycling to even swimming in the city’s canals, Copenhagen prides itself on its green credentials. By 2025, it hopes to be the world’s first carbon neutral capital city.

Copenhagen. Photo: Ursula Bach

Copenhagen has been the 2014 European Green Capital – and quite frankly, no wonder. Whether or not you believe in climate change, I can’t tell you how pleasant it is living in a city that takes green growth seriously.

Copenhagen. Photo: Ursula Bach

Now that title has been handed over to another city that I love – Bristol in the South West of England. I haven’t lived there since my university days, but it will always be close to my heart.

Bristol Suspension Bridge. Image: placesonline.com

I’m told that almost a fifth of its residents walk to work (and there are many hills!). It also has one of the first elected mayors and although I haven’t interviewed him for many years, George Ferguson, an architect,  strikes me as someone who is taking this title very seriously.

Bristol. Photo: Sarah Charlesworth

We won’t stay in Copenhagen forever, so how nice to think that there are cities in the UK that are thinking differently – cycling paths, water slides through the city centre (yes Bristol really did this) and a focus on sustainable living.

So good luck Bristol and please show the rest of the UK how things can be done. As Copenhagen proves, all you need is a little bit of vision.