Most Green Places

Smaller City Rankings

1 Burlington-South Burlington, VT

2 Ithaca, NY

3 Corvallis, OR

4 Springfield, MA

5 Wenatchee, WA

6 Charlottesville, VA

7 Boulder, CO

8 Madison, WI

9 Binghamton, NY

10 Champaign-Urbana, IL

11 Ann Arbor, MI

12 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA

13 La Crosse, WI-MN

14 Pittsfield, MA

15 Eau Claire, WI

16 Durham, NC

17 Norwich-New London, CT

18 Eugene-Springfield, OR

19 San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA

20 Chico, CA

21 Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA

22 Barnstable Town, MA

23 Utica-Rome, NY

24 Missoula, MT

25 Asheville, NC

The Best Green Places study, which is based on data discovered by Sperling's BestPlaces, examines 24 data metrics in 5 major categories -- including air and watershed quality, mass transit usage, power usage, farmers markets, organic producers, and number of green-certified buildings -- to determine which metro areas are the best places to live a green life.

Sperling's BestPlaces ranked the 379 major metropolitan areas, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Over 80 percent of all U.S. residents live in these 379 metro areas. Data was collected from sources which include the Census Source: Sperling's Places Rated

U.S. EPA's Green Communities Program

EPA's Green Communities Program is a web-based toolkit and planning guide designed to help communities access the tools and information to help them become more sustainable, Green Communities.

The Green Communities toolkit is closely linked, for many communities, to the concept of smart growth. EPA's Smart Growth web page describes smart growth as development that serves the economy, the community, and the environment. It changes the terms of the development debate away from the traditional growth-no growth question to "how and where should new development be accommodated"

Learn more here.