Green U.S. Cities Ranked By Public Transit, Energy, And Food (PHOTOS)

From EcoSalon:

Clean energy, public transit and local food make these 10 big cities the greenest of them all.

Honking cars emit foul black clouds, skyscrapers blot out the sun, litter lines the gutters and healthy green space can be hard to come by.

But in many of America’s biggest cities, these negative traits are being eclipsed by clean, efficient public transit, bike -- friendly infrastructure, multiplying trees, reliance on renewable energy and a fierce pride in locally -- produced products.

Slashing greenhouse gas emissions and coming close to zero waste is no easy feat for a metropolis with a population of at least 250,000, but these 10 cities -- from Boston to San Francisco -- prove that sustainability is possible on the largest of scales, in good economic times and bad.

List and captions courtesy of EcoSalon.

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Comments

[Andrew Harvey]

09:06 AM on 11/07/2011

Feel good nonsense.

There's a bid difference between conservation and constructing a park. If you added up all the money NYC spent on central park, you could have bought a quarter of the amazon rain forest and kept if from being burned down.

[Meja Sananyon]

11:30 AM on 11/05/2011

Cheers San Francisco!

[MrPragmatic]

11:01 PM on 11/05/2011

What about the other nine cities?

[Meja Sananyon]

11:15 AM on 11/06/2011

Hip Hip Horay!

:)

[vetxcl]

06:40 PM on 11/04/2011

No doubt there's a Congressional Committee that will put a stop to this very shortly. (Not really, they're largely impotent on this matter.)

See! There are smart cities in the US!

[IrishEyes21]

05:09 PM on 11/04/2011

When I lived in Oregon in the early/mid-80's biking was already very big - there were bike lanes everywhere. Their move to environmentally friendly has been going on for decades.

[Linus521]

03:12 PM on 11/04/2011

I am stunned. How could anyone say, concrete is green. Hot, hot concrete is no more green than the dead tumble of rocks on the surface of Mars. How can a building be green when the actual construction of the building killed that much of the physical body of the Earth, her ecosystems and biological diversity? How can a city be green while our living Earth is buried and entombed in concrete, asphalt, bricks, steel and glass, all dead planet! Might as well drop a bomb on that part of the Earth.

Only one green matters, the first green, the big green, the salvation and protection of the Earth's ecosystems and the biological diversity that creates and sustains the entire ecosystem. In wildness...only is the veritable green!

[vetxcl]

06:42 PM on 11/04/2011

Have you checked out urban farming efforts recently? How about ways to make concrete patches on roads so that they can drain better? How about green roofing?

[Linus521]

07:12 PM on 11/04/2011

The word green was seeded 60 years ago, when the father of ecology witnessed an ecosystem die in the absence of its wolves. How can agriculture, concrete or roofing be green as the only green, is the salvation and conservation of ecosystems and their biological diversity, the real, natural and wild Earth that seeded all life and maintains it right today. Green is the metaphor for the living, life creating and sustaining life supporting cycles, functions and systems provided for man free gratis because of Earth's ecosystems and the native species of plants and animals or Earth's biological diversity that create and sustain all ecosystems.

Ecosystems are killed by plows, bulldozers, chain saws and concrete, all about as life giving and in the eco-nomics of all life about as much as the dead tumble of rocks on Mars. Does a city or field of corn or slab of concrete release oxygen, govern the atmosphere, provide the nitrogen cycle, the hydrological system, the entirety of the Earth's biogeochemistry and all ecosystems, altogether, create the life zone of the Earth, her biosphere/ecosphere or life itself, to name a short list of vital cycles and services ecosystems provide for all life, including man's?

Regardless, a city is dead planet, and its climate is hotter than a natural ecosystem.

[Deep77]

04:33 PM on 11/05/2011

It is far greener to live in New York City or Philadelphia than it is to live in a remote town in Montana or in a sprawling suburb. People who live in dense urban environments consume far less resources than people who live in other types of towns. There is nothing more green than a skyscraper, because you have all those people sharing the energy and preserving space. People live in smaller quarters, which means they consume less stuff which usually ends up in our landfills. They have fewer children. They are less likely to own a car, taking advantage of alternative transportation-mass transit, bikes, or simply walking.

The average Manhattan resident consumes the same amount of gasoline as the average American in the 1920's. The average New Yorker consumes 1/3 of the electricity of the average Dallas resident. If NYC had the same density as a New Jersey suburb, it would cover an area the size on Connecticut, which would mean a lot more greenfield would be destroyed. The easiest way to lower your carbon footprint is by moving to New York

[Linus521]

07:05 PM on 11/05/2011

I am sorry, but you don't comprehend the definition of green. No energy is green because they have to kill the Earth's ecosystems and their biological diversity for all energies. The real green, the big green, the green that creates and supports all life and man's very existence is, the salvation and preservation of ecosystems and their biological diversity that creates Earth's ecosystems.

A city is as dead planet and as brown as Mars. A city performs no ecological life giving services I talked about in my previous commentary. Do cities support vast forests, prairies, rivers, wetlands, oceans and forests of hardwoods and chaparral; this is our living, life giving Earth? Does Houston, L.A., Chicago or Cleveland support bears, bison, elk, deer, coyotes, wolves, mountain lions, native species of birds, amphibians, reptiles, bumble bees; this is green; this is our living Earth. The life of the Earth.

You did hit upon a major point. It has been discussed to save more of the Earth's ecosystems, crowd humans into tighter spaces to preserve Earth's natural, ecological systems. Yes, ecosystems are green but only if comprised of native, natural and virgin landscapes or the wild...

[REMEMBER2050]

06:45 PM on 11/07/2011

Those were very good observations. Maybe Linus missed the memo on the planet's population hitting 7 billion on Halloween. He has points, but on his other points he's only going to get them if we all become cave dwellers and/or exterminate the entire race.

[cadawa]

03:07 PM on 11/04/2011

These are 'blue' cities, liberal and largely Democratic. Progressive and enlightened.

[PhunkeyPhish]

02:05 PM on 11/04/2011

Hopefully the protesters in Oakland don't wreck their city. I support OWS, but Oakland needs to shape up a bit.

[lightningbolt]

11:43 AM on 11/04/2011

Very interesting stats.   These cities will lead the way.  Citizens of dirty and polluted cities will become envious and demand that their leaders clean up their environment.