When we talk about green living, sustainability, and being generally eco-friendly, there is, unfortunately, no nationwide standard in the United States. That is to say, different areas do things differently across the country.
You can go to one particularly forward-thinking city and find all the best-recommended policies and green standards being practiced, and then head on to somewhere else and find none of it.
However, we want to focus on some positive news in this post: those American cities that are trying their hardest to get it done for future generations, and the future of the Earth, by living as greenly as possible.
So, here they are, three of the most eco-friendly cities in the United States.
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Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon, is one prime example of a city doing its best to live responsibly and encourage its citizens to do the same. If you do end up getting one of those Portland houses for sale, you’ll fit right in if you’re of a “green” mind.
The city employs natural methods of managing stormwater, cares for its natural areas, and uses green institutions to maintain sustainable practices on its streets, in its building materials, and even in its sewers.
On top of all that, Portland also plants a whole lot of trees as part of its Tree Program. As you might suspect, the initiative reaches out to others in the community to plant trees wherever possible. If that ain’t green, we don’t know what is.
New York, New York
If we’re talking forward-thinking, we have to mention the great city of New York, often on the cutting edge of so many futuristic endeavors.
The city is quite green, to put it simply. New York started a carbon challenge that was meant to encourage everyone to reduce their own carbon emissions and save the planet from warming up. Citizens can also check out a map of which places in the city are performing the best in terms of saving energy.
And many places should be doing well, given New York’s zero-waste program and laws encouraging more responsible energy usage. Ultimately, New York’s well ahead of the sustainability game.
St. Paul, Minnesota
Bringing up the end of this list is St. Paul, Minnesota. Now, the state has also dedicated itself to reducing its greenhouse gases by 80% by 2050. That’s already an ambitious goal and certainly worth admiring.
St. Paul on its own, though, intends to go fully carbon-neutral by 2050. How? It’s a real challenge, to be sure. The metropolitan area of St. Paul is home to about 3.6 million people, and a lot of those people also work in the city’s skyscrapers downtown.
So, to get everyone in on the fun, St. Paul requires building owners to report on their energy usage, all in keeping with its 2050 goal of carbon neutrality.
With the city currently using about 15% renewable energy, more work is still to be done, but praise St. Paul for going all-in on doing its part.
