The
Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metro area ranked No. 1 among 43 U.S. metro areas
in a report on America’s “green cities.”
The “Green
Cities Index” ranks metro areas on a variety of environmental factors,
including traffic congestion, transit use, water quality, carbon emissions,
LEED-certified projects and number of “green” jobs.
The index
was compiled by the Business Courier of Cincinnati, which is owned by American
City Business Journals, the parent company of the Portland Business Journal.
The index draws
on data from a variety of government and research agencies.
For the
index, the paper evaluated the 40 markets in which American City Business
Journals publishes newspapers, plus Los Angeles, where the company operates a
business-news Web site, and Indianapolis and Cleveland.
The index
looked at such variables as commuting habits of residents, travel time and fuel
use, and air and water quality.
The Portland
region received high rankings for having the second most LEED-certified
building projects in the country and for having minimal sprawl — Portland
ranked fourth in the sprawl index behind San Francisco, Boston and Honolulu.
Portland’s
poorest showing came in the ranking for commute travel time, where it came in
21st. At 19th, Austin was the only metro area in the green top five with a
better travel-time ranking.
The city with the No. 1 travel time
ranking was Wichita, Kan. Not surprisingly, Witchita ranked No. 43 for use of
public transportation. Portland ranked eighth for public transportation use.
