ACEEE Names Boston Most Energy-Efficient City in the U.S.

A new report issued by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy ranked Boston the top energy-efficient city in the United States. Boston scored very high among U.S. cities in all five categories considered in the evaluation, including first in Community Initiatives and Energy Water Utilities & Public Benefits Program, second in Transportation, third in Buildings, and fifth in Local Government. The ACEEE highlighted a few of the city’s best practices: energy-saving goals for local government and community operations, energy-saving services for residents with Renew Boston, a city partnership with utilities (NSTAR and NGRID), and an ordinance the city passed requiring large buildings to report energy use. The only improvement listed was that Boston encourage more pedestrian, bike, and transit travel through zonal and developmental policy improvements. EarlyBird contributed to this success by recently completing the largest solar deal in MA.

Here is the breakdown of Massachusetts’ renewable energy employment by energy type:

This chart comes from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and appears in the Boston Globe: http://www.bostonglobe.com/2013/09/17/green-progress-mass/SMDSFOAnw48MYKywq6OmpJ/story.html

The cities rounding out the rest of the top five are: Portland, New York City and San Francisco (tied for third), and Seattle, with Austin, Washington D.C., Minneapolis, Chicago and Philadelphia filling in the rest of the top ten cities.