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Mapped: The Greenest Countries in the World

by Therese Wood
This post is by Therese Wood from Visual Capitalist

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Mapped: The Greenest Countries in the World

From widening wealth disparity to the environmental ramifications of economic development—the growing focus on global sustainability is a clear sign of the times.

Research reveals that when a sustainable ethos is applied to policy and business, it typically bodes well for economies and people alike. By providing benchmarks for those decisions, indexes like Yale’s Environmental Performance Index (EPI) can be critical to measuring national sustainability efforts.

The above map interprets the EPI ranking of 180 economies across 32 environmental health indicators by narrowing in on the top 40 greenest countries.

Who’s the Greenest of them All?

Despite the decades-long trend of globalization, national environmental policies have proved to be widely divergent. The EPI report confirms that those policies—and their positive results—are highly correlated with national wealth.

This is evidenced in the global EPI distributions, seen below:

OVERALL RANKCOUNTRYSCOREREGIONAL RANK
1Denmark82.51
2Luxembourg82.32
3Switzerland81.53
4United Kingdom81.34
5France805
6Austria79.66
(Read more...)

The Carbon Footprint of Trucking: Driving Toward A Cleaner Future

by Sponsored Content

The following content is sponsored by DynCert.

carbon footprint of trucking

The Carbon Footprint of Trucking: Towards a Cleaner Future

The pandemic may have temporarily curbed greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but even a global recession can’t negate the impact of transportation—especially the carbon footprint of trucking.

In 2020, lockdowns resulted in an 8% average global decrease in GHG emissions over the first half of the year, when compared to 2019.

As this infographic from dynaCERT shows, trucking remains a significant contributor of GHGs amid booming ecommerce and increased international trade. But innovative solutions can help.

GHGs and the Impact of Trucking

Between 2005 and 2012, global GHG emissions plateaued but have risen every year since.

This growth is not expected to slow in the coming years. Between 2019 and 2050, the amount of atmospheric CO2 is projected to nearly double, from 4.5 to 8.2 gigatons.

Carbon dioxide is not the only substance emitted by trucking that’s detrimental to the environment:

Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)Black Carbon (BC)

  • Include carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and methane (CH4)

  • Trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere resulting in a greenhouse effect, or “global warming”

  • Emitted during processes like combustion and livestock farming, and can remain suspended in the atmosphere for decades or even centuries


  • Fine particulate air pollution also known as "soot"

  • Emitted by combustion engines, BC is the second-largest contributor to climate change after CO2

  • BC can remain in the atmosphere for weeks before falling to Earth in rain or snow

Road vehicles have been major (Read more...)