Newcastle Tops U.K.'s Greenest City Ranking

Shrouded in smoke and the center of ship building, Newcastle-upon-Tyne was once a major industrial center. But the city has been transformed into the greenest city in Britain in recent years, according to a sustainability audit, The Guardian reports. Newcastle was a bit of a surprise, surpassing cities that typically come to mind when Britons think "green city," such as Bristol and Brighton & Hove, which ranked second and third, respectively.

But perhaps Brits shouldn't have been quite so surprised.

Newcastle has rapidly moved up in the rankings in the past few years: The city, located in northern England about half-way between Leeds and Edinburgh, ranked eighth in 2007, and last year they moved up to fourth before leaping up to the top spot for 2009.

Click here to read our full article on TreeHugger.