A new report on environmentally progressive cities ranks Honolulu third among 43 U.S. metropolitan areas.
The Green Cities Index, compiled by American City Business Journals – owner of Pacific Business News – judges metro areas on a host of environmental factors, including traffic congestion, transit use, water quality, carbon emissions, LEED-certified projects and number of green jobs. Data from a variety of government and research agencies is used in the analysis.
Honolulu ranks first for least amount of carbon emissions per capita, second in sprawl, third for the number of LEED architects per capita, sixth for use of public transit, 15th in green jobs per capita, 31st in LEED-certified projects, and 33rd for travel time.
ACBJ analyzed the 40 markets in which it has business dailies, plus Los Angeles, where the company operates a business news website, and Indianapolis and Cleveland. West Coast cities dominated the top three: Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metropolitan in Oregon and Washington ranked first while California’s San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont area ranked second.
