Today, that commitment finds expression in a large number of eco-friendly urban-planning projects and various innovations.

Green spaces, biodiversity, air and water quality, renewable energies, renewal of building insulation: over the past 15 years, Metropolitan Lyon has made all these themes its watchwords, transform life in the city along with it.

Eco-friendly urban planning 

  • Innovations throughout the entire area, to make the city a more pleasant place, 
  • A lively, smart, innovative, sustainable metropolis: Lyon Smart City. This sustainable urban development enables new uses by incorporating technological innovations (resource pooling, combating waste, improving access to essential services like health, education and culture, etc.)
  • Creation of eco-districts (Confluence, La Soie, Part-Dieu)
  • The district of Confluence named as the first sustainable district in France.
  • Hikari, the first smart, mixed-use, energy-positive neighbourhood in France. 

Encouraging eco-mobility

  • 24-hour self-service car-sharing is booming and is set to be one of the modes of transport of tomorrow’s city.
  • Second largest public transport network in France, with over 75% of journeys made by electric vehicles.
  • First city in France to have a self-service bike share system: VELO’V.
  • Self-service cars (Citiz LPA – Yea).
  • In May 2017, Lyon Saint-Exupéry Airport became carbon neutral, obtaining  ACA 3+ of the Air Carbon Accreditation scheme, a greenhouse gas emissions reduction programme. 
  • NAVLY: the world’s first public transport service using autonomous electric vehicles. 

Opening the city up to nature 

  • Lyon ranked fourth in France’s Green Cities Observatory ‘Greenest City Awards 2017’, and first for the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
  • Every year, nearly 10% of the city’s squares and gardens are regreened, and each resident of Lyon has 32 m² of green space (public and private) within a radius of less than 300 metres away from them. 
  • A green city with 360 hectares of green spaces, green walls and over 25 shared gardens.
  • Redevelopment of the banks of the Rhône and Saône into an area for walking, cycling and leisure activities.

An environmentally-friendly area

  • Innovations to make Lyon a sustainable area: AXELERA (chemical and environmental sectors), CARA (European Cluster for Mobility Solutions) et Tenerrdis (energy transition) are three competitiveness clusters firmly committed to clean technology.
  • Creation of the 'Lyon, a Sustainale, Fairtrade City' label in 2010, with over 200 labelled organisations. 
  • Launch of the Made in Lyon label in 2019 to promote the city’s creative arts,
  • A growing number of eco-friendly hotels available, 
  • The Cité- Lyon Convention Centre: an initiative geared towards ecology, with an ecological stance from all staff and an environmentally friendly site (bioclimatic control, solar panels, ISO 14001-certified green spaces).

Sustainable business and leisure tourism