Houston 16th of big green cities in North America

San Fran, NYC, Boston top list

Jay Blazek Crossley, Jul 06, 11.

Energy efficiency, land use and transportation planning, air and water quality, and consumption reduction are defining the greenest cities in North America in a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit, according to USA Today, which ranks, San Francisco, New York, and Boston as the greenest:

San Francisco, which requires recycling and bans non-reusable shopping bags, ranks first on a 27-city survey released today, but three Eastern cities —New York, Boston and Washington — make the top 10, as do Denver and Minneapolis.

“There’s a real trend in these cities to pay attention to environmental sustainability for economic reasons” that include cutting energy costs, says Eric Spiegel, president and CEO of Siemens Corp., which sponsored the survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a research division of The Economist. “They’re not waiting for Washington to make up its mind on climate change.”

Houston ranks 16th out of the 27 largest North American cities analyzed in the report. Detroit places last, according to USA Today:

Top-ranked cities leverage public dollars with private capital and have comprehensive plans, Spiegel says, noting that 21 of the 27 cities already have et targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.