America's 25 greenest cities
As Kermit the frog says, “It’s not easy being green.”
Country Home magazine, with help from Sperling’s Best Places, examined all 379 major metropolitan areas in the country, ranking them according to how green they were.
Qualifications for top ranking included air and watershed quality, miles of mass transit, power usage, farmers' markets, organic producers, and the number of green-certified buildings.
“We wanted to find out who in America is actually taking action, where they are, and what they are doing,” says Editor-in-Chief Carol Sheehan.
Here are the magazine's picks for the 25 greenest cities in America:
1. Burlington-South Burlington, Vt.
2. Ithaca, N.Y.
3. Corvallis, Ore.
4. Springfield, Mass.
5. Wenatchee, Wash.
6. Charlottesville, Va.
7. Boulder, Colo.
8. Madison, Wis.
9. Binghamton, N.Y.
10. Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
11. Ann Arbor, Mich.
12. San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif.
13. La Crosse, Wis.
14. Pittsfield, Mass.
15. Eau Claire, Wis.
16. Durham, N.C.
17. Norwich-New London, Conn.
18. Eugene-Springfield, Ore.
19. San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, Calif.
20. Chico, Calif.
21. Harrisburg-Carlisle, Pa.
22. Barnstable Town, Mass.
23. Utica-Rome, N.Y.
24. Missoula, Mont.
25. Asheville, N.C.
Source: Country Home (04/07)
What I notice from the above list is that many of the greenest cities are college towns. While the Southeast is the most popular area for relocation in the country today, it's notable that only 3 cities are represented, Charlottesville VA, Durham NC and Asheville NC. But the interest is certainly here as evidenced by one of my clients recently asking me to start a search for their dream home and their criteria included many environmentally friendly concepts:
several rooms smaller than the home we currently have
eco-friendly flooring...no-VOC paint...bathrooms of earthy materials and luxury showers/baths
an enormous library/study which would act as our office and homeschooling area -- filled with huge eco-friendly bookshelves and ports for three different computer stations, an entertainment area with a sofa and plasma TV (the only TV in the house) and lots of gorgeous windows
simplicity, earth, farm-house feeling, spare yet what is there is highest quality
We want to keep electricity usage at a minimum...solar panels, lots of large shade trees in the yard
built by an eco-conscious builder already or a home that we could upgrade by an eco-friendly company
The desire for green is here in Charleston and hopefully, more communities will be developed in the Charleston South Carolina real estate market to appeal to today's environmentally conscious real estate consumer. A start in that direction is available in Oak Terrace Preserve in the Park Circle area of North Charleston, a new green community with construction by Brentwood Homes who are introducing EarthCraft Houses to the Charleston area.