Greetings!
SustainLane's
2008 U.S. City Rankings are here! It's our bi-annual study of the
50 largest cities and the nation's most complete report card
on urban sustainability.
How we rank our cities is not a simple exercise, but here's the gist:
We research the 50 largest U.S. Cities and evaluate them on 16 categories of sustainability. Then we average the scores and compare the
cities. Viola, we have our list.
In
the end, we can tell which cities are rocking, which ones are struggling, and which ones are making huge strides. Looking at the
entire US, we can also spot hot trends and recent innovations in the green movement.
As part of our commitment to green living in our every day lives, we
need to hold our cities accountable. So let's take eco-responsibility
mainstream and get to work on the great sustainable American metropolis!
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 Top 5 Greenest Cities
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 Being a Top 5 Green City isn't as easy as checking off a to-do list of green milestones. Traits already set in stone like geography and layout play a huge role, but the human factor can certainly tilt the scales, taking a city from the Top 20 all the way to the head of the class. The greenest cities in the U.S. share some common traits: they're all located on or near water, were built before suburbia existed, and have easy access to local food. Most important though: they've put green plans in action through effective teamwork. And now, finally, here they are. The 5 Greenest Cities of 2008: - Portland
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Chicago
- New York
Click to see the complete list...Are you swelling with civic pride? Do you have a comment to share? Tell us at SustainLane.com!
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Trends for Sustainable Cities
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 Community Groups Getting Funded
Minneapolis and Seattle promote grassroots action by offering funding to neighborhood associations. click to read more
Downtown Revitalization
Columbus, Oakland, and San Francisco are bringing new life to their downtown areas through improvements to infrastructure, transportation, and the addition of high-density 24-hour live/work spaces.
Waste Is Good
Boston is pushing for an indoor composting center that could produce enough energy to power 1,500 homes. click to read more
The Denver Zoo is developing a first-of-its-kind waste-gasification plant that will supply more than 10 percent of the zoo's power. click to read more
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Do Red Mayors, Blue Mayors or Purple Mayors Make Better Green Mayors?
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Dr. Suess rhymes aside, with all the pressure to be seen as green these days, do you ever wonder which major political party is better at greening up the cities they run? Maybe you think bi-partisan or independent mayors are the most effective because they put results before party affiliation? We crunched the numbers, and the results may surprise you. Click here for the comparison.
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Bottom 5 Cities
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 Like the Top 5 Cities, the Bottom 5 are also subject to geographical factors beyond their control. The biggest problems are inland location and rampant car-dependent development.
However, the Bottom 5 can still catch up in the green race. By beefing up their public works administration, sustainability staff, and community "green teams,"
they can convert more plans into action.
Here they are:
Click to see the complete list...
Tell us your green city stories at SustainLane.com.
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3 Hot Ideas From The Top 5
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Most Improved City - Columbus, OH
|  And in the category of most improved city, the award goes to...drum roll, please... Columbus, Ohio! Congratulations, Columbus, for moving from dead last in 2006 to the #30 spot in 2008. Bravo!
The two factors that most contributed to this giant leap were green building initiatives and a massive downtown revitalization effort. Columbus is now an even better place to call home. And fewer commuters means cleaner air and a greener city.
Click to read more... |
Video: Green City of the Future - Masdar, AbuDhabi
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 With all this improvement, ever wonder how green our desert cities could become? Wonder no more. Masdar, AbuDhabi will be powered by solar panels and wind turbines, and will take its water from the sea. Zero carbon emissions and zero waste.
Click to watch.
Wondering how U.S. desert cities compare? Click here to find out.
Inspired by this video? Post your comments at SustainLane.com.
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| Osaka Greener than Hiroshima? |
Think our U.S. City Rankings are pretty neat? Apparently other countries do too. Government leaders in Japan liked the idea so much that they contacted us to help them rank Japanese cities the same way we ranked ours! Watch for the first bi-annual Japanese City Rankings to premier at the Tokyo Green Festival in 2009.
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