DENVER — Based on data from various sources including the Census Bureau, U.S. Energy Information Administration and the Carbon Disclosure Project, Yardi scored and listed the top 40 most sustainably powered cities in the U.S., and found that Boulder, Denver and Lakewood are some of the greenest cities in the nation.
The study measures various indicators like: CO2 emissions, coal usage, nuclear power, solar power, geothermal, wind and hydro power, as well as walkability, EV changing stations and bike lanes.
- Boulder ranks 7th nationwide right after Minneapolis, with almost max scores for reducing CO2 emissions and using renewable fuel resources;
- Denver landed 11th nationwide and is 3rd most sustainable city in the Midwest, scoring 72.8 green points; it is also comprises the nation’s 6th largest LEED-certified building inventory and is expecting another 21 in the near future;
- All three Colorado cities on our list have scored high for the nuclear indicator, spurring the effort to convert to solar and wind power;
- Minneapolis is the nation’s 6th, and the Midwest’s top sustainable city, with 77.6 green points;
- East Coast cities ranked midway in the study with some spiking in the top 10 like Washington, D.C. and Boston, while cities on the West Coast ranked highest overall and Midwestern ones scored lower, except for Minneapolis, Boulder and Denver which landed in the top 10 & 20;
Colorado has been diligently turning its power sources green. According to EIA data, more than half of the state’s net 2,536 thousand megawatt-hours of electricity generated in April 2018 was produced from hydroelectric and non-hydroelectric sources. Renewables technology, both harvesting and storage, have advanced far enough that plenty of options have become affordable on a household level.
Colorado state legislators recently saluted this progress by granting utility consumers the right to store energy from renewables, free of any discrimination in rates or in connecting to the grid. This is one of the most important steps taken so far, in support of adopting green energy sources in the U.S., and it is, therefore, no surprise to see Boulder and Denver high up in the list of the nation’s most sustainably powered cities.
