15. Washington, DC

The nation's capital may have slid a few spots in SustainLane's rankings this year, but Washington, DC is still making positive steps towards becoming a more sustainable city. The city recently established the Office of Policy and Sustainability, and it's developing a comprehensive sustainability plan. As part of Mayor Adrian Fenty's Green Collar Jobs Initiative, a task force is compiling a directory of local and regional green businesses. DC continues to have one of the best farmers’-markets-per-capita ratios in the country for a major city, and it still leads the nation in city commuting—thanks to public transit, carpooling, and Washingtonians' own two feet. In other news, DC's water authority voted in 2008 to discontinue a multi-million dollar program replacing the system's lead service pipes, saying other lead-reduction measures have rendered the program unnecessary. We don't know about you, but since scientists discovered "intersex" fish in the Potomac, we prefer not to put our lips anywhere near DC tap water.

A view down an escalator at a Washington D.C. Metro Station. (Photo by dbking)