Sunday, September 28, 2008

Sustainable Cities

SustainLane Presents: The 2008 US City Rankings
Welcome to the 2008 SustainLane US City Rankings! You'll find extensive coverage on the greening of the 50 most-populous cities in the nation on these pages, and the most complete report card on urban sustainability in America. This report benchmarks each city's performance in 16 areas of urban sustainability, including an essential new measurement this year: Water Supply. Forged in 2005 and now in its third edition, the peer-reviewed Rankings track the unfolding story of cities working to improve their residents' quality of life. In this story, some cities are becoming more self-reliant and better prepared for an uncertain future, while others have been slow to act on opportunities to green their municipalities.


San Diego is ranked #26 of the countries Sustainable Cities.

San Diego created its sustainability initiative in 2002, giving them six years to develop and implement environmental policy. The results have ranged from water conservation plans and emissions controls, to beach clean-up projects and even international partnerships to reduce solid waste. Still, there is room to improve. The city recently passed an ordinance requiring recycling at all private residences, commercial buildings, and city-permitted events. The decision came after the city determined that 37-percent of the waste sent to its landfills could be diverted. The sunny southern California city is taking advantage of its mild Mediterranean climate by creating a solar map that will calculate the area of all city rooftops and how much potential solar energy can be created from that space. The map will also provide estimates of how much money residents could save on their power bills (and also how much carbon output would be offset) by switching to a renewable energy source.

Check out the entire list here.

No comments: