Most Environmentally Friendly Cities

by Douglas Burger

Cities across the U.S. are learning what Kermit the Frog sang about long ago: It’s not easy being green. Taking care of our environment is hard work, but as Kermit realized, being green is a good thing. For this study, we took a look at the most environmentally friendly cities in America, using 15 data points from 11 sources. Below you will find our results, as well as a detailed methodology explaining how we arrived at them. 

Most Environmentally Friendly Cities

Here is how 200 metropolitan statistical areas with qualifying data stacked up in the three separate categories that we studied. In all rankings below, a lower number is better than a higher number.

Best and Worst Cities...

Cities and people affect the environment both with direct initiatives and indirect consequences. We aimed to put together a list of data points that encompassed both of these factors. Here is a detailed description of a few data points.

Twenty-six percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. are caused by transportation, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Using the U.S. Census Bureaus commuter data, we looked at the percentage of commuters that drive to work by themselves. Cities with a higher percentage (meaning fewer carpoolers, public transit takers, walkers, bikers, et cetera) ranked lower. The New York-Newark-Jersey City metro area topped the list, with just 50.6% of commuters driving solo.

There are many different ways a building can be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. Overseen by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED means making buildings that are more resource-efficient. Using the USGBC as a resource, we looked at the number of LEED certified buildings in each city. In order to account for a city’s population, we calculated the data point per 1,000 residents. 

One factor that the EPA uses to measure air quality is particle matter. Particle matter includes dust, dirt, soot, smoke and liquid droplets, according to the EPA. Data was only available for 179 of our 200 cities. 

Methodology

In order to determine the most environmentally friendly cities, we looked at 15 data points from 11 reputable sources. Not all data points were available for every city. In these cases, cities without a data figure were given a last-placed ranking in that specific category. Incomplete data points were given a lower weighting (in parenthesis below) in order to accommodate for missing data, while full data was weighted more heavily. 

A likely data point -– greenhouse gas emissions –- was omitted from our study due to a lack of current data at the state or city level. According to the EPA, more than 50% of greenhouse emissions come from transportation and electricity -– two factors we highlighted in our study. We attempted to capture as many details about a city that makes it environmentally friendly. 

Data points (1) and (4) were important to us as we felt they directly affect harmful emissions entering the atmosphere. We also felt it was better for a city to be using less energy overall (7) while still producing more renewable energy (8). Air quality (13, 14) was also important to our study. We chose to use ozone and air particles because those data points were the most complete and covered the most cities in our study. 

Below, we breakdown each statistic and point to its origin. Those marked with an asterisk are state-based (not city-based).

Transportation
1. Percentage of residents who drive to work alone (1.5)	U.S. Census Bureau (2014)
2. Walk score (.5)	Walk Score (2016)
3. Best cities for bicycling	ValuePenguin Research (2016)
4. Annual excess fuel consumed (gallons per commuter) (1.5)	Texas A&M Transportation Institute (2014)
Energy
5. Number of LEED certified buildings per 1,000 residents (2)	U.S. Green Building Council (2016)
6. Percentage of Green Goods and Services employment (.5) *	U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2011)
7. Total energy consumed per capita (.5) *	U.S. Energy Information Administration (2013)
8. Renewable energy production (.5) *	U.S. Energy Information Administration (2013)
9. State Energy Efficiency Scorecard (.5) *	American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (2015)
Environment
10. Number of environment, conservation and wildlife organizations per 1,000 residents	U.S. Census Bureau (2014)
11. Farmer’s markets per 100,000 residents (.5)	Priceonomics (2014)
12. Parkland as a percentage of city area (.5)	The Trust of Public Land (2016)
13. Ozone (daily maximum 8-hour average) (1.5)	U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2015)
14. Particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers (mean weighted by calendar quarter) (1.5)
15. Water quality (.5)	Environmental Working Group (2009)

Experts' Take

← Tom Paladino is the CEO of Paladino and Company.

1. What factors should be considered when determining the most environmentally friendly cities?
Efficient and accessible public transportation, transit oriented development, infrastructure to support alternative modes of transportation (bike lanes and walking paths), green building codes, incentive programs for solar/energy efficiencies, abundant green space, public recycling and compost receptacles and green leadership.

2. How has the way we looked at the environment and conservation changed in the last 10, 20, 30 years?
In the past, we tried to fight the environment with development, but we are now relearning how to co-exist and integrate within the environment. We consider nature an abundant provider and use abundance thinking as a driving force for change. Poor soils are a good heat sink; excessive solar gain is free pre-heat; heavy rainfall can be a collected and reused water source. Buildings and development can be sustained over time, with culture and ecology in balance.

All natural systems are balanced as they maximize the resource base that is presented to them; the system takes form around abundant resources and does not search out what it does not have. A coral reef maximizes the use of high mineral content, high solar gain and shallow water to create an underwater structure that attracts fish that deposit more minerals to build more coral. A succession forest uses an abundant resource base of cloudy skies and consistent rain to support undergrowth that provides the nutrient base for tall trees that create more shade to create more undergrowth.

In both examples, the natural systems optimize available resources to generate sustained growth. This focus on abundance is the driving force behind successful natural systems and is the model for any human system. A city or county can create naturally sustaining greenhouse gas reductions by harvesting readily available momentum to reach its carbon neutrality goals. An abundance approach assumes that within any context, the needed resources exist and simply need to be harnessed and allocated.

3. What cities are already ahead of the curve when it comes to being environmentally friendly?
Seattle recently released a new building ordinance to increase transparency and educate customers about energy efficiency. These factors used to be obscured from buyers and tenants until they committed to purchase or lease, but now they can use efficiency data as a factor in their decision-making.

San Francisco has a new green building policy that requires all buildings up to 10 stories to install rooftop solar panels. Solar for commercial buildings has been a huge hurdle, and San Francisco is changing the game with this ordinance. Santa Monica followed suit only a couple weeks later, passing an ordinance requiring rooftop solar systems for all new construction in the city, effective almost immediately. The ordinance will contribute to the city’s energy and climate reduction goals, including becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

New York is known for its leading green building policy with its “One City Built to Last” resilience and sustainability program.

← Dr. Chaden Diyab is the CEO of Autopia.

1. What factors should be considered when determining the most environmentally friendly cities?
Nowadays, the urban development design has changed. City planning and development is no longer simply about focusing on housing and safety. Although these elements remain crucial, the model city is now diversifying and is considered almost as an intelligent element, almost independent.

The factors that determine and should determine the city of the future are those that ensure compliance with the essential ecological elements: air quality, space arrangement, water quality and conscious and reasonable exploitation of energy.           

2. How has the way we looked at the environment and conservation changed in the last 10, 20, 30 years?
The way we looked at the environment and its conservation has drastically changed over the past 30 years. The consideration, and the progressive acceptation -- which hasn’t reached all minds -- flowed over the time, reaching more and more citizens, then politicians. As a result, along with the climate change, political decisions are now more and more shifting toward the anticipation of the latter. More specifically, with the incoming flows of migration due to climate change, from poor or rural areas, states and cities need to take the right actions in order to apprehend correctly the social and economic impact of environmental unpredictability.

3. With the aim of making a better environment to live, what technology or tool will change how we live the most in the next 10 years?
Mostly, we believe that technologies aiming at energy consumption reduction will be prominent in the market. There are already so many different alternative sources of energy, and almost autonomous technologies to produce these energies.

Secondly, the type of technology most likely to be developed is technology aiming at improving living conditions. Life quality, especially in rural and poor areas will become essential to ensure the welfare of these populations, which are more and more threatened by climate change.

Stay tuned as we poll more experts in the field about what makes a city environmentally-friendly. Have a tip? Drop us a line @VP_Careers.