Santa Monica ran fifth, behind San Francisco, Portland, Berkeley, and Seattle, and ahead of Austin, New York, Chicago, Oakland, Minneapolis and Denver (tied), in the SustainLane U.S. City Rankings, which measured 25 US cities’ cumulative performance and programs in economic development and quality of life categories.
The rankings were announced at the United Nations’ World Environment Day celebration on Thursday, June 2 at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco.
The index, developed by the Bay Area organization www.sustainlane.com integrated public and non-governmental organizations’ data inputs (US EPA, US Census, Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Working Group, Smart Growth America, Trust for Public Land) on each city with qualitative inputs gathered from city interviews and surveys.Categories of data and information analysis utilized for ranking purposes include transportation, air quality, tap water quality, food and agriculture, land use, zoning, planning, green building, energy/climate policy, solid waste, city innovation, and knowledge base.
