Image to the left from Sustainlane.com, all rights reserved.
Sustainlane, the online guide to sustainability, just released its 2008 sustainability rankings of the 50 largest cities in the U.S. Denver was ranked 11th behind Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, New York, Boston, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Oakland, and Baltimore.
The rankings are based on 16 factors: Air Quality, City Commuting, Energy & Climate Change, Local Food/Agriculture, Green Building, Green Economy, Housing Affordability, City Innovation, Knowledge Base, Metro Street Congestion, Metro Transit Ridership, Natural Disaster Risk, Planning/Land Use, Waste Management, Tap Water Quality and Water Supply. For more information about the ranking's methodology see here.
As you can see from the graphic above Denver's highest scores were Knowledge Base (4), Green Building (5) , Energy and Climate Change Policy (6) and Planning and Land Use (8). Its lowest scores were Housing Affordability (33), Metro Street Congestion (36), Water Supply (40), and Solid Waste Diversion (43).
It really is shocking that Denver is ranking 43rd out of 50 cities in solid waste diversion. This is clearly an area where the Denver Region could improve its performance.
Below is Sustainlane's summary of Denver:
"In 2008, Denver played host to what planners hope will go down in history as the "greenest" political convention ever. We'll wait for the verdict to come in on that one before we comment... Meantime, if the Mile High City's utilities division crunches its numbers right (and we trust that they do), then by the end of 2008, the city will have increased its renewable energy portfolio by nearly 1000 percent since 2005. With momentum like that, Denver could meet the higher end of its goal of 20 percent renewables in less than five years. Denver's on track and moving forward in most SustainLane categories, but what we're really dreaming of is an increase in its solid waste diversion rate (9.5) by 1000 percent!"
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