Houston one of the least 'green' cities in US, near bottom in two categories, report says

The Beaumont Express
Robin Bradshaw - Texas Digital Reporter
October 11, 2022

A recent report from WalletHub compared 100 of the most populated cities across the U.S., and its community efforts to promote an environmentally friendly lifestyle, with clean energy and "green" practices.

The data set was measured on four key factors including environment, transportation, energy sources and lifestyle and policy.

Here's how Texas cities ranked for green efforts across the state:

Across the Lone Star State, Austin took the lead and came in at (No. 23) across the 100 cities ranked in the nation, following San Antonio at (No. 44), Laredo at (No. 45) and El Paso at (No. 48).

On the flip side, Houston was on the bottom of the list and came in at (No. 93), following Arlington at (No. 90), Corpus Christi at (No. 88), Fort Worth at (No. 87) and Dallas at (No. 85) and Lubbock at (No. 68).

How cities ranked across the U.S. for green efforts:

Overall, San Diego took the lead across the U.S., as the No. 1 "green" city, following Portland, Oregon, Honolulu, Fremont, California and Washington, rounding out the top five in order.

Cities located in Arizona scored the worst on the report for green efforts and included Gilbert, Arizona at No. 100, Glendale, Arizona at No. 99, Mesa, Arizona at No. 98 along with Baton Rouge and Hialeah, Florida, rounding out the top five worse green cities in the nation, according to the report.

Greenhouse-gas emissions per capita and percentages of green space:

The report also highlighted cities with the highest and lowest greenhouse-gas emissions per capita and cities with the highest and lowest percentages of green space.

These cities topped the lists on both sides of the spectrum.

The cities with the highest greenhouse-gas emissions per capita included Corpus Christi, Texas, Oklahoma City, Denver and Baton Rouge, rounding out the top five.

On the flip side, the cities with the lowest greenhouse-gas emissions per capita included Virginia Beach, Virginia, Oakland, California, Jersey City, New Jersey, Reno, Nevada, Hialeah, Florida, and San Bernardino, California, according to the report.

The cities with the lowest green space included Lubbock, Texas; Meza, Arizona, Baron Rouge, Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky, and Hialeah, Florida

Anchorage, Alaska, took the lead with the highest percentage of green space in the report, following Freemont, California, Irvine, California, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Chesapeake, Virginia.

Methodology:

The data set was measured on four critical factors, including environment, transportation, energy sources and lifestyle and policy, while measuring 28 relevant metrics; according to the report, each metric was then graded on a 100-point scale. The cities scoring the highest to 100 represented the greenest practices and policies.