Belfast is home to the the sixth most eco-friendly high street in the UK, according to a survey carried out.
Taking the focal point as Victoria Square, the city scored a total of 295 points in the research carried out by SaveOnEnergy.
The company took into consideration nine different variables that commonly relate to eco-friendliness and devised a scoring system to rank each high street.
Belfast scored 33 for recycling centres, 36 in the charity shop category and 10 for health food stores. It has 18 independent shops, it scored 30 for charging stations and 30 for green space. Belfast also offers 238 restaurants that serve vegan options. A total of 102 was subtracted for fast food.
Scoring the highest with 357 points and taking the crown as the eco-friendliest high street, is Saint Andrew’s Street in Cambridge. This high street offers consumers 64 local green spaces, 82 eateries that serve vegan options, 18 charity shops and 6 charging stations.
Coming in very close with 350 points is Bridge Street in Cardiff taking second place. It has the highest number of charity shops at 20 and offers 12 health food stores, 14 charging stations and 15 restaurants that serve vegan options.
After combining the scores from each variable, each high street is left with a total. The greater the total score for each high street, the more eco-friendly that high street is. The lower the total score for each high street, the less eco-friendly the study will find them.
SaveOnEnergy’s index also revealed the least eco-friendly high streets in the UK. The research can exclusively reveal that the lowest scoring high streets were located in Woking, Warrington, Norwich, and Swindon.
The recently reinvented Commercial Way in Woking is the least eco-friendly high street in the UK. With only 1 recycling centre, 1 independent store and 4 charity shops, Woking scored an incredibly low score of 19 points overall – a staggering 338 less than Cambridge.