A new study commissioned by the Siemens Corp is putting smiles on the faces of Denver’s clean energy aficionados. The Mile High city is ranked the fifth “greenest” major city in the U.S. and Canada Green City Index, which looks at the environmental performance and policies of 27 cities.
“Our goal with the Green City Index is to identify best practices, advance good ideas and provide a baseline for cities to help them set targets for themselves so that they can serve as role models for others with their innovative policies,” said Alison Taylor, Siemens’ chief sustainability officer for the Americas.
Not surprisingly, San Francisco finished first with an index score of 83.8, followed by Vancouver, New York, Seattle and Denver. Denver scored 73.5 points in the index. We are still not sure how the Big Apple scored ahead of Denver, but we’ll leave that discussion for another time.
The index examined environmental performance and policies in nine areas: CO2 emissions, energy, land use, buildings, transport, water, waste, air quality and environmental governance.
Here is what the report said about Denver: “The city’s strongest categories are energy and environmental governance, where it places first. Its clean and efficient energy policies are among the most robust in the Index, and its environmental governance performance is supported by its green action plan, green management and strong public participation.”
The results of the report also speak to the value of the clean energy and sustainable public policies enacted by Denver officials over the last several years. These folks deserve a pat on the back.
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here to download a PDF of the report.
Posted by Ann Rascalli
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