San Francisco tops the list of 2017’s Greenest Cities in America just released by personal-finance website, WalletHub. With October designated as National Energy Awareness Month and New York recently becoming the first city to unveil an actual plan that upholds the Paris Climate Agreement, WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis to rank the greenest cities and determine which cities promote a “green” lifestyle.
San Francisco ranked #1 in WalletHub 2017 Greenest Cities.
According to the Pew Research Center, today, nearly three in four Americans would agree that green living is a conscious choice. Some worry, however, that “going green” would cost the economy too much green and result in major employment cuts. Experts widely agree that clean energy and other environmental innovations including recycling programs and urban agriculture, also benefit public health and contribute to America’s bottom line.. Recognizing those advantages, the greenest cities across the U.S. have aligned their sustainability efforts with their economic goals and according to WalletHub have in turn received handsome returns those investments. Nearly 250 cities across America have pledged to uphold the Paris Climate Agreement.
Location of Greenest Cities in America 2017 from WalletHub
WalletHub’s analysts compared the 100 largest U.S. cities across 22 key indicators of environmental friendliness and sustainability to rank the greenest cities. The data set ranges from greenhouse-gas emissions per capita to green job opportunities per capita to number of smart-energy policies and initiatives.
| Greenest Cities in America | |||
| 1 | San Francisco, CA | ||
| 2 | San Diego, CA | ||
| 3 | Fremont, CA | ||
| 4 | Honolulu, HI | ||
| 5 | San Jose, CA | ||
| 6 | Washington, DC | ||
| 7 | Sacramento, CA | ||
| 8 | Irvine, CA | ||
| 9 | Portland, OR | ||
| 10 | Oakland, CA | ||
| Least Green Cities in America | |||
| 91 | Oklahoma City, OK | ||
| 92 | Cleveland, OH | ||
| 93 | Lexington-Fayette, KY | ||
| 94 | Toledo, OH | ||
| 95 | Tulsa, OK | ||
| 96 | St. Petersburg, FL | ||
| 97 | Louisville, KY | ||
| 98 | Jacksonville, FL | ||
| 99 | Baton Rouge, LA | ||
| 100 | Corpus Christi, TX | ||
Best vs. Worst
- Lubbock, Texas, has the lowest median air-quality index, 21, which is 4.3 times lower than in Riverside and San Bernardino, California, the cities with the highest at 90.
- Anchorage, Alaska, has the most green space, 84.2 percent, which is 56.1 times more than in Hialeah, Florida, the city with the least at 1.5 percent.
- Lubbock, Texas, has the lowest annual excess fuel consumption, 4.1 gallons per auto commuter, which is 8.5 times lower than in New York, Washington, as well as Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey, the cities with the highest, each at 35 gallons per auto commuter.
- New York has the highest walk score, 89, which is four times higher than in Chesapeake, Virginia, the city with the lowest at 22.
- Honolulu has the most farmers markets (per square root of population), 0.1197, which is 63 times more than in Newark, New Jersey, the city with the fewest at 0.0019.
To view the full WalletHub report and your city’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/most-least-green-cities/16246/
