In case you missed it, there was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal recently that briefly profiled the efforts of nine cities around the world in their efforts to reduce energy consumption. It profiles New York City, Chicago, Aspen CO, Ann Arbor MI, Palm Desert CA, Amsterdam, Beijing, London, and Thane, India. View the article here.
This is a pretty solid article as far as it goes, but what struck me the most is that it did not attempt to provide a larger view of how widespread such activities are around the world, and even in US cities. In fact, if I were to look for the US cities that are doing the most, I don't think I would have selected many of the places discussed in this article. I definitely would include NYC and Chicago; but I would have included Austin TX, Cambridge MA, Santa Monica and San Francisco CA, Grand Rapids MI, and some other cities because I think they probably better exemplify best practices.
I was also struck by the fact that there was no effort to provide a sense of the larger context in which the selected cities have decided to pursue energy efficiency and conservation. For many cities, that larger context consists of broad-based efforts to try to become more sustainable, especially in terms of the bio-physical environment and quality of life.
Let me know if you are aware of any other major city efforts, either on energy efficiency or climate change. I'm particularly interested in actions and programs undertaken by the city government.
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