The top 10 greenest cities in the U.S., according to WalletHub
Find out if your city made the cut.
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Six of the top 10 greenest cities in the U.S. are in California, according to a new survey by WalletHub. The personal finance website ranked the 100 most populated cities based on the current health of the environment and residents’ environmental-friendliness.
“San Diego has an outdoor-first mindset,” said Kelly Baker, sr. director of communications at GoPro. “With nearly perfect weather year-round, our community has endless opportunities to be outside, which makes sustainable, green living habits an obvious and easy choice. This mindset and motivation aligns perfectly with GoPro’s brand and allows our team to live out the company’s core values every day.”
WalletHub compared the cities across four key measurements: environment, transportation, energy sources, and lifestyle and policies. Using 26 relevant metrics, the researchers graded each state on a 100-point scale, with 100 representing the highest level of eco-friendliness.
San Diego received the highest score of 72.53, followed by San Francisco; Washington D.C.; Irvine and San Jose in California; Honolulu, Hawaii; Fremont, California; Seattle, Washington; Sacramento, California; and Portland, Oregon.
“San Diegans love to get outside, whether they’re surfing at Sunset Cliffs, hiking at Mission Trails, or just exploring Balboa Park, so it’s no surprise they also want to protect their green spaces by doing what they can—using hybrid vehicles, recycling, shopping local,” said Dan Byrnes, hardgoods buyer for Adventure 16. “At Adventure 16, we encourage San Diegans to shop local to reduce resource consumption. We feature many Southern California-based vendors and help people connect with the outdoors, growing a community of environmental stewards.”
Dave Wray, business development director at Nemo Design, said it only makes sense that his home of Portland, Oregon, made the list. A few of the reasons, he said, include the city’s tool sharing closets and kitchen shares, the abundance of bike commuters and electric scooters and bike lanes and solar panels, people’s use of reusable food containers, and more.
“You’ll often find parking receipts with time still left on them attached to the parking pay station so others can use them,” he said. “Or, I’ve even had people hand me theirs as they are leaving their spot. Sharing is caring and it saves a buck or two.”
See the other 90 greenest cities here.
