Sustainability in Copenhagen: Why It’s a Green City (2026)

Copenhagen is a sustainable city because it makes the green choice the easy choice. Cycling is quicker than driving for many journeys, almost every home is warmed by a shared district heating network, waste becomes energy, and even visitors are rewarded for travelling responsibly.

For anyone working in sustainability, marketing or hospitality, Copenhagen is more than a pleasant city break. It shows how good design, consistent policy and clear communication can change everyday behaviour at scale. Here’s what makes it work, and what the rest of us can learn from it.

Why is Copenhagen a sustainable city?

Copenhagen’s sustainability rests on four things working together:

• Transport built around bikes. Cycling is the obvious way to get around, not a lifestyle statement.
• Shared, low-carbon heating. District heating covers 98% of the city’s heating demand (HOFOR).
• Waste treated as a resource. The CopenHill plant turns waste into energy and doubles as a public ski slope.
• A whole-city approach to tourism. Wonderful Copenhagen, the city’s tourism organisation, rewards visitors for green actions through CopenPay.

What ties them together is that none of them relies on people being heroic. The infrastructure does the work, and the sustainable option is usually the most convenient one.

How is Copenhagen sustainable? The key initiatives

A city built for cycling

According to VisitCopenhagen, 49% of trips to work or school in the city are made by bike, up from 35% ten years earlier, and 97% of Copenhageners are satisfied with cycling conditions (VisitCopenhagen). Dedicated bridges, wide cycle tracks and bike signals that give riders a head start at junctions make cycling feel safe and fast.

The lesson is in the bridges. When the Bryggebroen cycle and pedestrian bridge opened in 2006, experts expected about 3,300 crossings a day. Within months, more than 9,000 people were using it, a third of them former car drivers (same source). Build the route and people use it.

Green heating for almost every home

Copenhagen’s district heating network, run by the utility HOFOR, covers 98% of the city’s heating demand. HOFOR has converted the Amagerværket power station from fossil fuels to biomass and replaced the last steam-based section of the network with more efficient water-based heating (HOFOR).

Shared heat networks like this are far easier to decarbonise than millions of individual boilers, which is a big part of why the city’s emissions have fallen so far.

CopenHill: waste-to-energy with a ski slope

CopenHill, also known as Amager Bakke, is a waste-to-energy plant designed by Bjarke Ingels Group that opened in 2019. It converts around 440,000 tonnes of waste into energy each year, and its roof carries a ski slope of about 400 metres, along with hiking trails and a climbing wall (Dezeen).

It is a brilliant piece of communication as much as engineering. A power plant that people choose to visit for fun makes the city’s energy system visible and something to be proud of.

CopenPay: rewarding tourists for green choices

CopenPay, created by Wonderful Copenhagen, rewards visitors for actions such as cycling, picking up litter, arriving by train or joining biodiversity workshops. In return they get free experiences, meals and discounts.

The results are impressive. Participation grew from 5,000 people in the 2024 pilot to 25,000 in 2025, partners grew from 26 to 100, and 7 in 10 participants said they left motivated to change everyday habits such as cycling more and sorting waste. Bike rentals rose 59% on the same period the year before, and 98% of users were satisfied or very satisfied (Wonderful Copenhagen).

TIME named CopenPay one of its Best Inventions of 2025. In June 2026, Wonderful Copenhagen announced it would relaunch on 22 June as a permanent, year-round scheme, and it now offers the model free to other destinations as DestinationPay (Wonderful Copenhagen).

A city designed for living well

Sustainability in Copenhagen is not only about energy and emissions. The city encourages visitors to swim in the harbour at spots such as Islands Brygge Harbour Bath, eat at organic and plant-based restaurants, and visit urban farms such as the rooftop restaurant Gro Spiseri. VisitCopenhagen has also worked with the City of Copenhagen on simple guidance for visitors on helping to look after the city (VisitCopenhagen).

Is Copenhagen carbon neutral?

Not yet, but its progress is still remarkable. Copenhagen set out to become the world’s first carbon-neutral capital by 2025. In August 2022 the city said that goal was no longer realistic, because the CopenHill operator ARC could not secure the funding it needed to build full-scale carbon capture at the plant. By then the city had already cut its CO2 emissions by 80%, beating its own target, and it now aims to make a positive contribution to the climate by 2035 at the latest (The Copenhagen Post).

That honesty is part of what makes Copenhagen credible. It set a bold target, reported openly when one part of the plan stalled, and kept going.

The organisations driving Copenhagen’s green transition

Copenhagen’s success is not just the work of the city council. A wider network of organisations shares Danish expertise with the world:

• Wonderful Copenhagen, the city’s official tourism organisation, behind CopenPay and DestinationPay.
• State of Green, a not-for-profit public-private partnership between the Danish government and Danish Industry, Green Power Denmark and the Danish Agriculture and Food Council. It connects more than 600 Danish organisations with international partners working on the green transition.
• CONCITO, Denmark’s independent green think tank, which turns research and data into practical climate action across energy, food, cities and the economy.
• HOFOR, the city’s utility, running the district heating network.

What marketers can learn from Copenhagen

At Growfish, we work on sustainability communications every day, and Copenhagen is one of the examples we return to most. Here’s why.

1. Make the sustainable choice the easy one. Copenhagen doesn’t lecture people into cycling. It makes cycling faster and safer. Good sustainable marketing removes friction rather than adding guilt.
2. Reward, don’t shame. CopenPay offers a free lunch for picking up litter. Positive incentives create goodwill and stories people want to share.
3. Make the invisible visible. A ski slope on a power plant turns energy infrastructure into a talking point. Find the tangible, surprising side of your sustainability work.
4. Be honest about setbacks. Copenhagen’s openness about its 2025 target makes its other claims more believable. Admitting what’s still in progress builds trust.
5. Back every claim with evidence. Every result Wonderful Copenhagen publishes about CopenPay comes with a number. Specific, measurable claims are more persuasive and, under new UK and EU rules, far safer than vague green language.

What hospitality businesses can learn from Copenhagen

Copenhagen shows that sustainability and a great guest experience go together. According to Wonderful Copenhagen, a majority of the hotel rooms around the city are eco-certified (Wonderful Copenhagen). For hotels, tour operators and venues anywhere, a few lessons stand out:

• Get independently certified, and explain in plain language what the certification means for guests.
• Reward guests for green choices, as CopenPay does, rather than only asking them to reuse towels. DestinationPay now makes this model available to other destinations free of charge.
• Tell specific stories. Local suppliers, real energy savings and named initiatives are far more convincing than “eco-friendly”.
• Check your claims. From 27 September 2026, EU rules ban generic environmental claims that can’t be backed by recognised excellent environmental performance, which affects how hospitality brands can describe themselves. Our guide to sustainable vs traditional marketing explains the new rules.

We help travel and hospitality brands communicate sustainability with confidence. We’ve spoken to Select Green Hotels about what makes green hospitality work. If you run a hotel, venue or travel business and want your sustainability story to reach the right guests, explore our travel and hospitality copywriting and services, or get in touch.

FAQs

Why is Copenhagen considered a green city? Because sustainable choices are built into everyday life: around half of trips to work or school are by bike, district heating covers 98% of heating demand, waste is turned into energy, and visitors are rewarded for green actions.

Is Copenhagen carbon neutral? Not yet. The city dropped its 2025 carbon-neutral goal in 2022 after funding for carbon capture fell through, but it had already cut CO2 emissions by 80% and is working towards a new 2035 aim.

What is CopenPay? A scheme run by Wonderful Copenhagen that rewards tourists with free experiences and discounts for actions such as cycling, collecting litter or arriving by train. It became a permanent, year-round scheme in June 2026.

What can other cities learn from Copenhagen? That infrastructure and incentives change behaviour more reliably than messaging alone, and that honest, evidence-based communication builds lasting trust.

Sources

• HOFOR, District heating
• VisitCopenhagen, What makes Copenhagen the world’s most bicycle-friendly capital?
• VisitCopenhagen, A sustainability guide to Copenhagen
• Dezeen, Amager Bakke operator has no plans to close down ski slope, 25 August 2021
• Wonderful Copenhagen, CopenPay press kit
• Wonderful Copenhagen, Copenhagen expands CopenPay year-round, 9 June 2026
• Wonderful Copenhagen, Sustainable hotels and venues
• The Copenhagen Post, Copenhagen abandons 2025 CO2-neutrality goal, 23 August 2022
• State of Green, What we do
• CONCITO, About

For more information about growing your business, get in touch with a member of the team at growfish.co. We’d love to hear from you.

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