It should be no surprise that San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, rank high in a list of the cities with America’s greenest buildings. But Atlanta, Los Angeles and Washington, D. C. are not necessarily the cities that come to mind.
Washington, D.C. has risen to the top of the list by efficiency efforts in federal buildings. Boston and Minneapolis also made the top ten. Otherwise the usual suspects, Western cities, dominated the top slots, including San Francisco, Denver, Portland, Seattle, San Diego, Sacramento.
Los Angeles, ranked in the top 20, despite its traffic-choked freeways, along with Houston, Chicago and Cincinnati.
New York City ranked in the top 30, along with Phoenix, Indianapolis and Las Vegas.
The five cities at the bottom of the green building list were New Orleans, St. Louis, Memphis, Birmingham and Oklahoma City.
Atlanta was the only southern state to make the top ten, due in part to a recent ordinance that all new city construction and major renovations must be Silver-LEED certified .
This list is important because large cities, like the 50 on this green building list, account for almost all US population growth from 2012 to 2013.Worldwide, 7 out of 10 people are expected to live in cities by 2050, up from today’s 5 out 10, according to Clean Tech. And green energy is important for controlling air quality and attracting jobs.
Other significant findings from this year’s report are:
Colorado, Vermont, Oregon, and Washington each now exceed 100 LEED projects per million people for the first time
Eleven states now generate more than 10 percent of their electricity from non-hydro renewable energy sources, with two – Iowa and South Dakota – exceeding 25 percent.
U.S. solar installations climbed more than 40 percent year-over-year
Registrations of all-electric vehicles more than doubled from last year to nearly 220,000 nationwide
At least eight states now have more than 50 percent smart-meter market penetration; California leads with 70 percent.
Click here to read the entire report on the Clean Techies website.
Leave a Reply