China: Green cities don't have to come at the expense of economic growth

"How green are China's cities?" McKinsey Quarterly, January 2011.

In connection with the World Economic Forum's themes, McKinsey has published the results of a new study on the sustainability of China's cities. Unsurprisingly, they found huge differences between individual cities.

What may come as a surprise though, is that there was no causal link between sustainability and economic growth. Almost a third of the cities studied were "sustainable growers." They expanded economically while improving on sustainability measures. McKinsey found many "all-round" high performers, suggesting that good city management is key to success, and may even be more influential than potential trade-offs between growth and greening.