Nantes – Green Ray to the Future

Following Stockholm, Hamburg and Vitoria- Gasteiz, Nantes is the European Union’s Green Capital for 2013. This distinction rewarded all the efforts of resident population in favour of the environment and rational development. It is also an incentive to mobilise all the forces to take a new leap forward: involving public and private players, associations, and above all the citizens of Nantes themselves, who have made this progress possible and are also the chief beneficiaries. In the longterm development plans, up to 2030, there are even more ambitious target of reducing CO₂ emissions, waste management, water quality and biodiversity.

Nantes is a city in West France, located on the confluence of the Loire, Erdre and Sivre rivers, 55km from France’s Atlantic coast, and forms the core of the urban area of Greater Nantes.

Nantes can trace its roots back to pre-Roman times. From the 19th century onwards, it became an important industrial base. Together with the downstream coastal town of Saint-Nazaire, it was the largest port in France – a major trading centre, especially across the Atlantic. The river is still accessible to oceangoing ships. In 1975, Nantes was home to some 60,000 industrial workers - many of them in the shipbuilding sector. With the closure of the shipyards in the late 1980s, Nantes faced a difficult social climate tinged with disappointment and despondency. Believing culture to be essential to social cohesion, Nantes made it the central and crosscutting focus of all its sustainable plans. Nowadays Nantes is called a green wonder of western France.

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Green Capital Secretariat