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And the Greenest State Is…

Posted June 7, 2010 by Matthew Denton

These places would excite every environmentalist.

Congratulations, Washington !
The Evergreen State is certainly living up to its name as it was named by green directory Greenopia.com as the top in the list of the country’s greenest states. Citing its strong points, the website posts, “Washington has better than average air and water quality according to data from the EPA and American Lung Association. Washington has a very good recycling rate at around 45%, and its state government has been very progressive in adopting environmental initiatives. Washington has a large number of green businesses and LEED buildings (ones that are both registered and certified), even when you scale them to its population. It is also one of the greener states in terms of its per capita emissions, energy consumption, and water consumption. Lastly, Washington is one of the top states in renewable energy sourcing.”
Not far behind are Vermont , New York (for real?), Oregon , California , Nevada , Maine , Colorado , Minnesota and New Hampshire that round the top 10. I must admit I got surprised when the Big Apple ranks third but the website’s explanation could answer my questions in a way: “ New York , somewhat surprisingly, has pretty clean air and water, outperforming most states. New York also has a very large number of green businesses, with most of them being in or around New York City . New York is arguably one of the greenest states in terms of per capita emissions, water consumption, and energy consumption. This is somewhat surprising given its climate. New York uses a very large percent of renewable energy, although most of it is hydroelectric.”
See? I’m not the only one who’s surprised.
But Greenopia’s pleading that the states at the bottom should begin looking at their environmental policies. Delaware , Wyoming , North Dakota , West Virginia and Louisiana are all poor environmentalists with the Pelican State being reprimanded for its “low recycling rate relative to the national average of around 30%, very few LEED certified or registered buildings even when scaled against its population, and its failure to utilize much in the way of renewable energy even though it is fairly well suited for solar and geothermal energy.”
So homebuyers in Washington are pretty much confident that they’d be breathing fresher air than most states whereas those searching in Louisiana , be prepared to write to your governor to reconsider his view on implementing a stringent environmental plan.

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