Portland, OR tops 2008 eco-friendly city rankings

The Greenwash Brigade

(Image courtesy of SustainLane)

I love the annual SustainLane City Rankings, and the 2008 results came out this week, with Portland, OR at the top of the list.

I dug in to check out their methodology, and I have to say that the academic in me is pretty impressed. Overall, it’s very well thought out.

But I can quibble with some of the details. For example, I’m unconvinced that LEED is really the best way to evaluate green building. What about Energy Star, which arguably has a larger effect because of its accessibility and scale — and easily accessible data? How did Austin, Texas end up at #9 when they have one of the strongest green building programs in the country?

Some of the categories seem to double-dip - Metro Transit Ridership, City Commuting, and Metro Street Congestion are nearly the same thing. They are largely a function of Planning and Land Use. And, Air Quality is a function of all of them combined. Still… hanging out with friends I’d argue that the importance of Planning and Land Use deserves extra weighting. Looking at Atlanta’s details, it’s easy to see how these are all connected (if you remember that sprawl leads to congestion, and congestion encourages transit and carpooling.)

I then went to skim the overall rankings and the more interesting specific category rankings, in particular using my egocentric perspective of “How’s Minneapolis rank?” Now, I’m really curious about our low water quality ranking, as I was under the impression it was really good. More homework. The highlight of the rankings - the stories at the bottom! I’m off to visit one of them (the Common Roots Cafe) to work now!

September 25, 2008 by Janne K. Flisrand
5 comments

tags: Atlanta Austin green cities Minneapolis Portland SustainLane

Comments (5)

Jim Nicolow | Respond
September 26, 2008 5:35 AM PT

I disagree with your point about Energy Star as a better metric for green building than the LEED Rating System, which was used by SustainLane for their analysis. The SustainLane analysis attempts to be comprehensive, assessing a broad range of categories such as air, water, waste, planning, and climate change policy, rather than a single metric such as energy. The Energy Star program only considers energy use, while the LEED Rating System addresses a broad range of impacts, including site/planning, water, energy, materials/waste, and indoor environmental quality. The LEED approach seems to me to be more compatible with the SustainLane analysis.

Janne Flisrand | Respond
September 28, 2008 1:09 PM PT

Jim - Thanks for your comment. Energy Star for new homes is more than just an energy rating - it also addresses indoor environmental quality and durability (which is part of materials/waste.) It's not as all-encompassing as LEED, but the number of LEED buildings in a city has little to do with how green a city's buildings are - except in those parts of the country especially competitive (NYC) or who were especially slow to start on green building.

Russell from Portland | Respond
October 1, 2008 2:50 PM PT

Jealous, Janne? Have you ever been to Portland?

Portland is constantly on the top of many green lists. Here it is a passion. Many cities contibute being green in their own way. Sierra Club had an article on them called "Green Streets" last year. City of Portland has an excellent Office of Sustainable Development to aid the path of those going green. We have one of the only Natural Step chapters in the United States. We have the highest hybrids per capita as well as those buying green energy through their utilities.

Ari Koinuma : responding to Russell from Portland | Respond
October 2, 2008 11:55 AM PT

Indeed, I am jealous. I wish all cities are like that.

ari

Anne | Respond
November 5, 2008 5:40 PM PT

Portland is indeed a green city (I lived in Seattle until two years ago) but the greenest aspects of it have little to do with LEED. short blocks, good public transit, good public participation, and a population willing to fund transit and green streets.

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Meet the Greenwash Brigade

Our hand-picked environmental professionals, each part of the Public Insight Network, are on the hunt for "greenwash" as they examine eco-friendly claims by companies, governments and other groups. They ask tough questions about the mainstreaming of green, from the perspectives of people in the trenches who are focused on these issues 24/7.

Jim Nicolow is a nationally recognized expert on sustainable design and leads the sustainability initiative for Lord, Aeck & Sargent, overseeing the incorporation of sustainable design strategies and features into the firm’s design projects. He is a LEED® Accredited Professional with extensive knowledge of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED rating system.

Janne K. Flisrand has worked as an affordable housing and urban planning research consultant for five years, primarily supporting local non-profits. Her focus is on transit, transit-oriented design, affordable housing, and sustainability. Currently, she’s the program coordinator for Minnesota Green Communities, a program promoting affordable, healthy, sustainably built housing throughout Minnesota.

Dennis Markatos-Soriano recently completed a Master's in Public Affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. He is now launching Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) to help individuals and institutions move from dependence on oil and gas to an efficient use of renewables. Previously, he co-founded SURGE (Students United for a Responsible Global Environment), which aims to bring young progressives together across issues of environmental and social justice throughout North Carolina and beyond. In the summer of 2006, he helped to start a small green company, Greenway Pedicabs, to provide a greenhouse gas-free transportation option for people in the Triangle of North Carolina.

Heidi Siegelbaum is a principal with Calyx Sustainable Tourism and works primarily on advancing sustainable tourism practices. She also specializes in science translation, cross-border indicators with Canada, cross-disciplinary planning and environmental technical assistance to businesses. Previously, she was in-house legal counsel for EPA for industrial chemicals and biotechnology and the senior performance measure analyst with the Washington State Department of Ecology. She is on the technical advisory committee of the Seattle Culinary Academy and a long standing member of the Chefs Collaborative.

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