Greening of the Bay Area
Big kudos to the Bay Area for scoring 3 of the slots on America’s Top 10 Greenest Cities. While we lost out on the #1 spot to Portland, San Francisco came in at #2, Oakland at #4, and Berkeley at #7.
The score sheet used to rank cities are based on 4 criteria, and each is assigned a point value:
- Electricity (10 points): Cities score points for drawing their energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar, biomass and hydroelectric power, as well as for offering incentives for residents to invest in their own power sources, like roof-mounted solar panels.
- Transportation (10 points): High scores go to cities whose commuters take public transportation or carpool. Air quality also plays a role.
- Green living (5 points): Cities earn points for the number of buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, as well as for devoting area to green space, such as public parks and nature preserves.
- Recycling and green perspective (5 points): This measures how comprehensive a city’s recycling program is (if the city collects old electronics, for example) and how important its citizens consider environmental issues.
San Francisco, with a rating of 23.0, scored higher on transportation than any other city in the top ten, or the top 50, for that matter. They also come up high in the electricity category. Oakland scored high in both electricity and transportation, with a total score of 22.5. Berkeley tied with Cambridge, Massachusetts with 22.2 points.
That last one is surprising. In my mind, Berkeley has always seemed the greenest city amongst us. CCC’s Berkeley Recycling Center recycles 18,000 tons of Berkeley’s recyclables every year from commercial and residential drop offs. The citizens of Berkeley also have curbside recycling, including a program started last year where food scraps can be combined into their green bins each week for composting. Commercially, curbside recycling is also available, and the Public Works Dept. is offering a pilot program for commercial food waste collection, allowing restaurants, produce markets, florists and bakeries to turn their waste into compost. Builders are encouraged to dispose of demolition and scrap waste in a green manner, when possible. In addition. UC Berkeley has its own refuse and recycling service. Public recycling bins can be found all over campus, and large paper dumpsters and green waste dumpsters are also in use. Toner cartridges are recycled, and excess furniture and office equipment is resold or donated. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Guess they’ll have to work harder to move up in the ranking next year.
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