DC ranks as 6th-greenest city in nation

WASHINGTON — The District is one of the most green cities in the nation, according to the consumer finance site WalletHub.

October is National Energy Awareness Month, so WalletHub decided to rank the nation’s greenest cities. And the District comes in at No. 6 on its list.

WalletHub ranked the cities on a total of 20 key indicators of sustainability, including greenhouse-gas emissions per capita, smart-energy policies and initiatives, green space, bike score, number of farmers markets per capita and walking score.

WalletHub ranks San Francisco No. 1 on its greenest cities list, followed by Honolulu, San Jose, Freemont, California and San Diego.

The region ranks high in other sustainability studies, particularly the District.

If D.C. were ranked as a state, the District would be the greenest state in the nation based on building space per capita, according to the U.S. Green Building Council’s annual list of top states for LEED Green building.

Maryland and Virginia both made the top 10 for the number of green buildings. The U.S. Green Building Council has dubbed the Mid-Atlantic region as the epicenter of green building.

Jeff Clabaugh

Jeff Clabaugh has spent 20 years covering the Washington region's economy and financial markets for WTOP as part of a partnership with the Washington Business Journal, and officially joined the WTOP newsroom staff in January 2016.

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