Manchester City Council in May 2004 proposed to put in place policies, targets and actions which over time would result in Manchester being able to justify, against internationally recognised benchmarks, the title "Britain's Greenest City"

They aim to launch a project to engage Manchester residents, businesses, schools and colleges, trade unions, environmental campaigners and media in a campaign to promote Manchester's aspirations to become "Britain's Greenest City", with an allocation of £200,000 in 2005/6 to enable the initial research, policy, partnership and capacity development.

MERCi through the Environment Network for Manchester is working to provide a set of defining principles of what a truly green city is and contribute to the development of appropriate Green City Performance Indicators to ensure the process benefits the environment and the residents of Manchester significantly.