Earlier this month, the Natural Resources Defense Council launched its “Smarter Cities” project, which ranks small, medium and large cities in terms of sustainability through measures such as air quality, access to public transportation, green building initiatives and more.
The Web site ranks more than 250 U.S. cities total, with Seattle, WA, topping the list as the most sustainable large city in the nation. Chicago, IL, the host city of the Solutions for Working Families: 2009 Learning Conference on State and Local Housing Policy, came in at number 10. Specifically, the windy city received high marks for its green building practices, good transportation system, participation in environmental standards, use of green space and recycling initiatives. Several of the workshops and sessions at Solutions for Working Families highlighted the use of these strategies to make communities more livable, both now, and in the future.
According to the data, these are the top 15 most sustainable large cities in the nation:
1. Seattle, WA
2. San Francisco, CA
3. Portland, OR
4. Oakland, CA
5. San José, CA
6. Austin, TX
7. Sacramento, CA
8. Boston, MA
9. Denver, CO
10. Chicago, IL
11. San Diego, CA
12. New York, NY
13. Los Angeles, CA
14. Dallas, TX
15. Columbus, OH
Additionally, Madison, WI was named the most sustainable medium-sized city, and Bellingham, WA came at number one among the small cities surveyed.
To learn more about how the cities were ranked, you can visit the interactive CityGrid application, which allows you to see how the cities stacked up against the different measures.