Popular Science just published a list of America’s 50 Greenest Cities. They used US Census Data and National Geographic Society’s Green Guide to create four scores to evaluate which cities over 100,000 people are the greenest.
To learn more about how Popular Science developed the four categories (electricity, transportation, green building/spaces, recycling), see article for details.
The top ten cities are: Portland, OR; San Francisco, CA; Boston, MA; Oakland, CA; Eugene, OR; Cambridge, MA; Berkeley, CA; Seattle, WA; Chicago, IL; Austin, TX. If you enjoy a visual, an industrious blogger from Austin TX placed all of the data on a map for easy viewing.
If you are for a green career, wanting to start a green business, or planning to grow their green business? Then take a look at ways you can use this list of green cities to guide your green career focus.
- The map of the greenest cities confirms a geographic pattern I’ve been seeing on other sites - compare the Greenest Cities map with Cool Cities and Focus the Nation events.
- Most people I talk to are looking for green careers in their local area. With these three maps, people will get a better idea of the green potential in their area. (Don’t panic if your city isn’t listed….I’ll have more to say about that in my next post.)
- The scores on the four green variables tell us what each city has been focusing on. This information could provide helpful clues to someone trying to find a way into the local green economy.
- The scores also tell us where there are gaps in each city. Although you’d need to do some research to understand the political climate and related issues, the low scores may point to potential business opportunities.
- Six case studies highlight some of innovative tactics greenest cities are implementing to reach their green goals. Take a look at these scenarios to see if your creativity is sparked!
- The fact that the 1st city has an overall score of 23 out 30 and the 50th city has a score of 10 out of 30 shows that there’s much more room for improving even our greenest cities! The momentum shows cities are taking this on, which is great news! The fact that opportunities exist means there’s going to be plenty of green careers as we move forward.
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