Limiting greenhouse gas emissions starts at home. Personally, my carbon footprint is less that 25% of the national average for people who live alone. Oftentimes, our best efforts fall short of changing national policy, drowned out by the din of corporate money. That does not mean we should stop trying, but often we can do more to effect policies on a local level, so here’s how America’s largest cities stack up.
Does your city have a plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions dramatically? Is it seeking to reduce car use through bike share programs and public transit subsidies? Does it partner with utility companies to help small businesses and homeowners save energy? And does it lobby for statewide energy-efficiency legislation?
Those are just a few of the policies that have made Boston the top-ranked city for energy efficiency, according to a new report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Portland, Ore., placed second, followed by New York, San Francisco, and Seattle.
ACEEE ranked 34 major American cities—the 25 most populous incorporated ones, plus the central cities of nine other major metropolitan areas—according to their efforts to promote energy savings. The report looked at building codes, community-wide energy initiatives, transportation policies, energy-saving programs involving public utilities, and efforts to improve the efficiency of government building. You can see where each city ranked on the map above.
The cities’ scores are based largely on their implementation of efficiency policies—enforceable building standards, for instance—rather than on quantifiable reductions in energy use and emissions. During a conference call following the release of the report, ACEEE official Eric Mackres said the report focused on specific policies because the group wanted it to serve as a "playbook of actions you can take to improve efficiency." He added that "because most cities aren’t as good at promoting energy efficiency as Boston and Portland, we don’t have as good of data on energy savings [and] energy consumption…and as a result, we weren’t able to compare all of the cities in the scorecard using those energy metrics."
Most cities did substantially worse than the top performers. While Boston received 76.75 of the possible 100 points, 23 cities earned fewer than 50 points… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Mother Jones>
As a rule, the blue the area, the better the score, and the redder the area, the worse, but we already knew that would be the case, because spending money on billionaires helps only the billionaires.
How did your city do?
19 Responses to “Which Cities Are Most Energy Efficient?”
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Excellent map and article TC – wish they did ones for Europe – but the Germans and the Swedes would definitely be leading the field there I think – Malmo in Sweden is astonishingly Green and many towns in Germany too (sigh!). I doubt the UK would do well – but that is partly due to our weather – and partly due to our governments!
Pat, your wearher is similar tgo ours in Portland. Yours is just a tiny bit wetter, because you are an island.
Oh – I forgot to say – ever since we were able to buy Green Energy from a different energy supplier a few years ago I have bought all Green energy – it may cost a bit more but it does mean that trying to keep my house free of damp and mould is a little less guilt making(!).
Kudos to Pat!
#1 Boston
#30 Tampa
I infer the reason for low energy efficiency in Florida is the Republican Political mindset in this state… 💡
I think you infer correctly.
Of course my city is not on there, but Vancouver is aiming at being the greenest city in the world by 2020, only 7 years away. From Reuters, here are a list of the 5 greenest cities in the world at 01 March 2010 http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/2010/03/01/top-5-greenest-cities-in-the-world/.
5. Vancouver, Canada Have a look at Vancouver's plan http://vancouver.ca/green-vancouver/greenest-city-2020-action-plan.aspx
4. Malmo, Sweden
3. Curitiba, Brazil
2. Portland, Oregon, United States
1. Reykjavik, Iceland
Makes me proud to live here. And there are additional programmes in the outlying suburbs which are not part of the City of Vancouver, but are part of Metro Vancouver. Right now, construction of the Evergreen Line of skytrain is underway in my area. It will mean faster access to the Vancouver core. There is talk that sometime in the future, cars will not be allowed in the city core, much like London, UK. Now if Toronto and Montreal would only get on board. Toronto has had some of the worst smog, but nowhere near like Beijing.
I should be moving but, it's just too cold…. 🙂
Wind, solar, wave and tidal energy all help ensure that this city remains green. Plus, they’ve got even greater goals for the future.
Richard, Vancouver isn`t that cold. This past year we had almost no snow, mostly rain. We are comparable to Seattle temperature wise. This summer, temperatures where I live in Metro Vancouver were as high as 36 C ( 97 F). In other parts of BC, temperatures are cold during the winter. And we don`t get hurricanes etc. The occassional `big blow` but that`s it.
I love Canada as I visited my friend for a week on the boarder of Maine and New Brunswick. I stayed with Ben's sister and husband in Maine in the evening and then crossed the boarder to New Brunswick in the daytime. I love the Country and the people. there and I think their Health Care is awesome too…
You may well catch us, unless harper makes green illegal.
My guess is that most billionaires live in blue areas (they like fresh air too), but make their money in red areas.
New York is a high billionaire area.
I live in a rural area, in coal country. Never the less, our city does recycle, that is a start. There is no public transportation, and it is too far to walk or bike to most of the things we need. I think much of rural America is in this same boat. I know lots of individuals who are trying to be green on their own. We do, by composting and recycling and watching our energy costs. One person at a time helps, I guess.
You could do what hyour state is fanous for. Ride a hoss! 😉
Just one more reason I'm glad I live in a sane state. It would be interesting to see how some of the smaller cities in Oregon rank. Corvallis would probably be next greenest, followed by Eugene.
To be honest, John, we're mot entirely same here. The danity ends past the Cascaders.
The sanity also ends at Cave Junction.
Hear! Hear!