13. Austin, TX

The "Live Music Capital of the World" took a decisive step toward becoming the planet's "Carbon-Neutral Capital" when it adopted an aggressive climate protection plan in 2007. The plan calls for all Austin’s operations, facilities, vehicle fleets, and utilities to be totally carbon neutral by 2020. Because the city owns its utility, meeting renewable energy goals may be a bit quicker than cities whose utilities are private. In Austin, the goal is for all city vehicles to be powered by electricity and non-petroleum fuel by 2020, and for all city-owned and operated buildings to use 100 percent renewable energy by 2012. Austin's blueprint for sustainability is the latest progressive measure from the city that brought us pioneer work in green building during the 1980s and 90s. That’s when they developed their own green building rating system still used today. Austin also started the Clean Energy Incubator, a consortium of business, academic and state government leaders devoted to helping clean-energy companies succeed. With a new 32-mile light rail opening in December 2008, we expect the central Texas city to reduce its number of drive-alone commuters and metro congestion.

Looking down at Lake Austin. (Photo by Larry D. Moore)