Which US Cities are Green?
Many cities in the US have made strides in becoming greener with sustainable business practices and consumer action.
The US gets a lot of bad press for not being particularly eco-friendly, so I like to highlight successes.
My blogs aim to point out easy ways of making a difference in our daily lives. So there is always a mixture of hints and tips, together with articles showing improvements and innovations.
Today I look at city-wide initiatives.
Over the past year or so, various institutions have published a lot of data on how green some US cities are. (US Census Bureau, National Geographic, city websites to mention a few).
Here is a totally non-scientific view of city initiatives which interest me, and show the progress being made.
San Francisco, California
SF is very pedestrian-friendly, and many areas offer great public transport. More than half of the city’s residents use either public transport or alternative transportation (e.g. bikes, roller blades) for their daily commute.
Chicago, Illinois
I must admit that this particular metropolis did not immediately spring to my mind when I thought of green cities, but in fact it has a lot of green initiatives. Many people find it’s easier to use public transport than to drive a car. All nine of the city’s museums have installed solar power, and the city aims to get 20% of its electricity from renewable resources within the next year.
Portland, Oregon
Portland on the other hand is well known to even me as a non-American as being green! It currently gets 44% of its city power from wind and water, it has carpool and bike lanes and also extensive recycling programs.
Austin, Texas
Well, yes, when I think of Texas, I think of oil, and oil isn’t exactly eco-friendly. But to be fair, the city started small by setting up green areas, and now there are over 200 parks and nature reserves throughout the area. They are aiming for at least 20% sustainable energy, and they have an innovative “pay as you throw” program to encourage re-use and recycling.
Boston, Massachusetts
Boston is developing an innovative power plant which will make use of yard waste – e.g. leaves, grass clippings – from around the city to generate power. The benefits are that it will remove garden refuse without it ending up in landfill, it will create cleaner power and it will reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels.
All great examples of what can be done!
And as I say, this is totally non-scientific, simply my picks of what I’ve read – I’m sure many other US cities have great initiatives too!
Photo Credit: attractions.uptake.com
Austin has been and probably will remain one of my favorites for a long time. Good tio know people are trying out new and innovative ideas.
I live across the pond from San Francisco and my town was voted one of the most walkable cities. They are also planting fruit trees around the town’s library and community meeting space. Plus, they let us keep our bees!
A walkable city is huge green cred. And indeed, keeping bees in an urban area, where often these things are so regulated, is great!
I’m at the other extreme, where almost nothing is regulated on this tropical island!
Clare, living 75 miles from San Francisco there are plenty of small towns that have adopted the green movement. Of course since they are smaller they probably would not make your list.
Scott Sylvan Bell
It seems like sometimes Green alternatives are not explored until other alternatives become so bad…traffic in Chicago and SF for example….but better late than never, I suppose….and then they can lead the way for others!
Sonya Lenzo
I’m not certain how if Las Vegas can be with these other Green Cities. There are quite a few green initiatives however in Las Vegas through our power company so I think I would throw our hat in there.
My perception is that your power company has lots of interesting ideas for Las Vegas consumers!