The Sustainable Cities Blog

How Green are the 50 Most Populous Cities of the U.S.A.?

Sustain Lane has compiled their biennial assessment of how green American cities are. First and foremost, New York is ranked number five--it was number six in 2006. And Portland, Oregon is number one--as it also was in 2006. Surprise!

Their methodology is based on a rather exhaustive set of information compiled from various governmental and contracted sources. And while no methodology will satisfy everyone, all the time, their indicators are expansive and inclusive. A foreseeable critique would be the use of data from various years between 2002 and 2008, as well as the differential weighting for certain categories. This could be construed as subjective. But the categories taken into account for the final analysis range from Air Quality (New York fared badly here-- we were 39 out of 50--gulp) to City Innovation (we were number 1 here--tied with 5 other cities). Each category has its own ranking for the 50 cities in addition to the overall bigger picture ranking. In addition, 2006 numbers are placed next to the current numbers for quick comparisons. Las Vegas slipped to 47 from 27. And Columbus, Ohio moved itself to 30 down from 50 two years ago.

All in all, the study is presented in an extremely accessible, understandable, and coherent way. If you want to move based on a certain green quality of life criteria or if you are just curious about where the cheapest housing is in the country (Texas--who would have thunk it?) I would recommend spending some time on the Sustain Lane Top 50 site.