Congrats, Emerald City. Seattle is the fifth most energy-efficient city in the United States.
In the rankings released this week by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, the “2015 City Energy-Efficiency Scorecard” puts us at No. 5, behind Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco respectively.
Finally, despite our rising rents and terrible traffic, some welcome news about living here.
The rankings take into account five factors when ranking the cities: Local government operations, community-wide initiatives, buildings’ policies, energy and water utilities, and transportation policies, according to the ACEEE.
While Boston wins the top spot again, “All [NYC, D.C., San Fran and Seattle] have wide-ranging efficiency policies and programs and a history of implementing efficiency initiatives,” states the report. “They all have closed the gap with top scoring Boston by scoring at least 75 points. The top five cities were separated by 11.5 points in the 2013 Scorecard. This year they are separated by 7 points.” They also report that Seattle was one of the “most-improved” cities, showing a double-digit score improvement.
Seattle also got a nod for “tackling efficiency” problems in our water system (take that, Shatner), and received a top transportation score as well.
Our friends in Portland, Ore., ranked in the top 10 as well at No. 8. Portland is also one of the leading cities in the “energy utilities” category, their programs offering a “high level” of savings for residents. They also got a nod for great public transport.
Below, a snapshot of the scores of the top 10 cities:
