Greenest Cities in the U.S. and Canada

US and Canada Green City Index - Assessing the environmental performance of 27 major US and Canadian cities (71 page pdf, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by Siemens, July 2011)

Today’s review article comes from the Economist which assessed over two dozen cities in the US and Canada in terms of performance under 9 factors which are seen in the graphics below for two of the Canadian cities, Calgary and Ottawa which both ranked in the middle of the pack (both cities scored high in water use efficiency and lower in air quality, particularly in CO2 emissions). San Francisco, New York City and Vancouver were leaders in the group.








Key Quotes:

“US and Canadian cities excel in several areas. Water infrastructure, recycling levels and environmental governance mechanisms are comparable to the best cities the Green City Indexes have evaluated around the world”

• “[CO2] The difference between US and Canadian cities is large, with the former emitting 16 metric tons per person and the latter only about half that much, at 8.1 metric tons”
• “[Energy] Most cities have only partial or even no policies to promote the use of green energy in homes or businesses through subsides or tax breaks”
• “[LandUse] All but one city has at least some policy to sustain and improve the quantity and quality of green space, and two thirds have active tree planting programs”
• “[Building] On average, the Index cities have 6.4 LEED-certified buildings per 100,000 inhabitants”
• “[Transport] US and Canada Index cities on average have only 1.7 miles of public transport network for every square mile of area, which is about half the 3.1 miles of European cities of the same wealth.. :in Canada, the average figure is 6.2 miles of public transport network per square mile, compared with just 0.7 miles per square mile in the US.. Fewer people on average commute by car to work in the Canadian Index cities, at 74%, compared with those in the US, at 90%.”
• “[Water] Residents of Index cities use an average of 155 gallons of water per person per day.. The overall average is about twice as high as in other parts of the world…the average leakage rate is just 13%, which beats even the wealthy cities of Europe, at 16%.”
• “[Waste] . On average 26% of waste is recycled in all cities in the Index, compared with 28% in the wealthier European cities”
• “[Air] Air quality targets, on the other hand, are slightly less widespread: only 12 out of 27 cities score full marks for this indicator”
• “[Environmental Governance] In their efforts to manage environmental governance, US and Canada Index cities are comparable to those of the high-income European cities.. 11 had done a comprehensive baseline review and 14 had set targets in every area”

Related articles

• SF: Greenest City in U.S. & Canada (sfist.com)
• Listicles : San Francisco: It's the Greenest (sf.curbed.com)
• In New Study, San Francisco Tops List of Green Cities in the U.S. and Canada (dirt.asla.org)
• Toronto is Canada's most expensive city (windsorstar.com)
• Dense, walkable, cute affordable Canadian cities? (ask.metafilter.com)
• Calgary commuters pay highest parking rate in Canada (calgaryherald.com)