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Top Ten Greenest Economic Cities

The rankings explain the presence of a green economy among United States cities. These indicators gauge, for instance, which cities’ public transit, renewable energy, local food, and development approaches are more likely to either limit or intensify the negative economic and environmental impacts of fossil fuel dependence.
The rankings are based on the presence of a city or public-private incubator for clean technology industries, including renewable energy, advanced transportation, advanced water treatment, alternative fuels, green building, and energy efficiency.
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Sacramento, California
Seattle, WA, US
1. Sacramento is the seventh most populated city in California.
2. The city has been recognized as a Tree City USA for twenty nine years.
3. To remove urban runoff from the city streets, the Department of Utilities maintains a series of canals, pipes, and pumps that direct water away from homes and into creeks, lakes, and rivers.
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Portland, Oregon
Portland, OR
1. The city plans to release a draft plan to guide recylcing and waste reduction through the year 2015.
2. Portland has won the AWWA NW Oregon Subsection Best TAstinf Water Competition.
3. Portland Parks and Recreation has developed a Natural Area Acquisition Strategy to guide completion of a connected system of natural areas in Portland
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Seattle, Washington
Seattle, WA
1. Seattle City Light is devoted to conserving energy and is recognized as a national leader in energy efficiency.
2. Seattle is the hometown of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, devoted to maintaining clean air, healthy air quality.
3. Mayor Nickel has launched a Restore Our Waters (ROW) strategy to protect Seattle's waters from pollution.
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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
1. Philadelphia's Department of Public Health has a program called Smoke Free Philly devoted to helping people quit smoking.
2. Green Plan Philadelphia is a plan devoted to parks, recreation, and open-space conservation in the Philadelphia area.
3. Philadelphia's Real Time Air Quality website provides information about air quality and gives tips on how to protect health if air quality is poor.
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San Francisco, California
San Francisco, CA
1. San Francisco consists mostly of a hilly geography, with more than fifty hills within city limits.
2. The biggest and most well-known park in the area is Golden Gate Park.
3. San Francisco is the second most densely populated city in the United States
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Denver, Colorado
Denver, CO
1.The Greenprint Denver Council has released its draft climate action plan, which coincides with the completion of the city's most comprehensive inventory of local greenhouse gas emissions to date.
2.The Denver Department of Environmental Health performs routine sampling of the streams, lakes, and outfalls within the City and County of Denver.
3.Denver has an extensive recylcing program to help residents eliminate Household Hazardous Wastes.
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Oakland, California
Oakland, CA
1.Oakland is located in the San Francisco Bay Area, the sixth most populated metropolitan area in the United States.
2.One of Oakland's most notable features is its downtown Lake Merritt, the largest urban saltwater lake in the United States.
3.The city's website offers ideas for healthy recreation at their various parks.
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Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore, MD
1.The city is a major U.S. seaport, situated closer to major Midwestern markets than any other major seaport on the East Coast.
2.The Maryland Department of Environment Oil Control evaluates the impact of petroleum constitutes in the Baltimore area.
3.The 2006 General Assembly enacted major changes to Maryland’s existing comprehensive planning law that, among other things, requires increased effort on the part of local government to ensure that a “water resources element” is adopted as part of county comprehensive plans.
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Chicago, Illinois
Chicago, IL
1. Chicago is the largest city in the state of Illinois with a population of 3,000,000.
2. The city has four distinct seasons.
3. Lake Michigan is the third largest of the Great Lakes.
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Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee, WI
1. Milwaukee has 14,927 lakes and 14,476,000 acres of forest.
2. The city has four distinct seasons and 33 inches of rainfall a year.
3. Lake Michigan cools the city in the warm months.