A✌️382-word✌️2-minute✌️read
Every year WalletHub does assessments of various quality of life issues in American cities and they are kind enough to include me on their distribution list.
Their 2025 assessment of the Greenest Cities in America has just been released.
The analysis looks at the 100 largest cities in the country. It includes 28 key “green” indicators include greenhouse-gas emissions per capita, the number of smart-energy policies, and initiatives to green job opportunities.
𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗿: I don’t spend much time digging into methodology. However, the basic structure of this evaluation seems reasonable and the data sources are credible and varied. With analyses like this I think the key take-away is the relative performance more than the absolute scores achieved by any particular city.
𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁?
▶ #𝟵𝟲 𝗟𝗼𝘂𝗶𝘀𝘃𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲, 𝗞𝗬, scored 37.11. It ranked 99th out of 100 in transportation, and 97th in energy sources.
▶ #𝟵𝟳 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝗮, 𝗔𝗭, scored 35.72. Its environmental rank came in 96th but it was middle of the pack in terms of lifestyle & policy.
▶ #𝟵𝟴 𝗛𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗵, 𝗙𝗟, scored 35.66. The city didn’t do better that 91st in environment, transportation, or energy sources.
▶ #𝟵𝟵 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻, 𝗧𝗫, scored 35.64. Houston, just missed out on avoiding being next to last which no doubt disappointed the oil community. Houston was dead last in both environmental and transportation rankings.
And the least green of the 100 largest cities in America is, drumroll please…
▶ 𝗔𝘁 𝟭𝟬𝟬 𝗶𝘀 𝗚𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗔𝗭
A round of applause.
Glendale ranked next to last in environment rank, but oddly didn’t score in the bottom 10 in transportation, energy sources or lifestyle & policy. One can only assume that they did not excel in any of the 28 metrics.
If your curious about last year’s least green cities, they were Baton Rouge (96) which catapulted all the way up to 95 this year, Mesa (97), Houston (98), Hialeah (99), and Glendale at 100.
Congratulations to Glendale for its consistency and lack of progressiveness in doing anything to claw its way from the very bottom of list. That takes effort.
Also note that the average score of the five least green cities declined from 36.68 last year to 36.0 this year.
Tomorrow we’ll highlight the 5 greenest cities.
#wallethub #climatechangeisreal #greencitites #environmentallyfriendly #environmentlaawareness #environmentalhealth