Kent Portney's "Our Green Cities" Blog

New National Ranking to Be Released Soon

I'm finishing up my latest rankings of cities' sustainability programs, and I hoping to release them within the next two weeks.  This year's rankings will be different from those of the past.  This release will rank the 54 largest cities in the U.S. rather than just the cities that have announced that they have a sustainability program.  The newer set of rankings will include all cities in the U.S. from Santa Ana, with a population of 324,000 up to New York City.  The older rankings included many cities smaller than this, including cities that have very impressive sustainability programs such as Boulder, CO and Santa Monica, CA, Grand Rapids, and MI, Madison, WI, to name a few.  Keep checking the Our Green Cities web site (http://ourgreencities.com) for this update.

Sustainable Communities in Massachusetts

Massachusetts has not been a leader on issues of sustainable communities, although from time to time Boston, Cambridge, Brookline, and Newton, among others have at least stated to talk a good game.  For those who would like to advance the cause in MA, there is a Massachusetts Sustainable Communities conference on April 15, at the Holiday Inn in Marlborough.  For more information about the program, speakers, and registration, go to http://www.masustainablecommunities.com .