Switzerland Ranked Greenest Nation

Posted by Angie Tarantino on Wednesday, September 26, 2012 ·
 
There are so many reasons why you may want to visit Switzerland. The neutral and quaint little country just seems to have everything going on, from friendly locale, rocky alps and of course the most amazing chocolate in the world. Now switzerland has gone and done it again. A recent 2012 EPI study has ranked them the top nation for environmental performance.The new study conducted by researchers at Yale and Columbia University revealed that Switzerland is leading the world on tackling pollution control and natural resource management. The 2012 Environmental Pollution Index (EPI) included 132 countries and were ranked based on 22 indicators among 10 major categories which include air and water pollution, biodiversity, climate change, and forest management.
Some practices which may have contributed to their top spot rank could be the fact that they charge fees for waste and water management and enforce environmental taxes in order to encourage good green behavior. For example, Switzerland charges 1 euro for every bag of trash that’s disposed. This ultimately promotes personal responsibility in terms of managing your own waste output.
Countries that received low ranks were mostly African countries where weak environmental laws have allowed pollution to skyrocket.

“Every country has something to learn from the 2008 EPI,” said Daniel Esty, director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. “Even the top-ranked countries underperform on some issues.”