Kermit the Frog may have said it best: “It’s not easy being green.”
Phoenix, you’d think with all of our beautiful desert landscapes and incredible array of unique flora and fauna, green living would be a priority in the Valley of the Sun. We’re surrounded by so much beauty; why wouldn’t we protect it and keep it — and ourselves — healthy?
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News flash: It ain’t a priority. In fact, we kinda sorta really suck at being green.
A new report from Wallethub ranked the largest U.S. cities by how “green” they are. Phoenix, in all of our glory, ranked 88 out of 100. That means only 11 other cities included in the report did worse than us. Eleven. Out of 100.
But don’t worry ya’ll, we’re not alone in our failure. Somehow other Valley cities — Gilbert, Chandler, Mesa — did worse than us. And Glendale? It came in dead last.
The financial site ranked the 100 most populous cities, not including their metro areas, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Neighborhood Technology, U.S. Geological Survey, TripAdvisor, and more. It analyzed four dimensions — environment, energy sources, transportation, and lifestyle and policy — using 28 metrics to calculate the rankings. It didn’t consider recycling habits because it lacked comparable data for each city.
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It turns out we Phoenicians love our cars too much, and it shows. We ranked 70th for annual excess fuel consumption and for median air quality index; we ranked even worse, coming in at 93rd. Surprisingly, we did a little better on our walking score despite our pedestrian-unfriendly streets, ranking 57th. We were middling for our greenhouse gas emissions per capita (38th) and percentage of commuters who drive (39th).
Despite our poor showing overall — 88th, might we remind you — we did make it into the top 25% for two categories. We were 21st for farmers markets per capita (Uptown Farmers Market anyone?) and 23rd for percentage of “green space,” however that’s defined in our beloved desert. Scottsdale outshone us for green space and tied for first. Poor Mesa ranked 95th, though. Maybe it’s time for them to build some parks?
Here’s how all of the Valley cities included in the report did. We’ve thrown in Tucson for good measure. Spoiler alert: Scottsdale beat us — boo hoo.
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Glendale: 100th out of 100
Overall score: 34.83
Environment: 98
Transportation: 85
Energy: 63
Lifestyle & Policy: 92
Mesa: 99th out of 100
Overall score: 35.79
Environment: 95
Transportation: 79
Energy: 78
Lifestyle & Policy: 62
Gilbert: 96th out of 100
Overall score: 36.68
Environment: 99
Transportation: 95
Energy: 63
Lifestyle & Policy: 56
Chandler: 92nd out of 100
Overall score: 38.99
Environment: 93
Transportation: 81
Energy: 63
Lifestyle & Policy: 54
Phoenix: 88th out of 100
Overall score: 42.57
Environment: 86
Transportation: 88
Energy: 53
Lifestyle & Policy: 47
Tucson: 69th out of 100
Overall score: 45.51
Environment: 80
Transportation: 15
Energy: 74
Lifestyle & Policy: 46
Scottsdale: 52nd out of 100
Overall score: 48.54
Environment: 33
Transportation: 54
Energy: 63
Lifestyle & Policy: 48