Sustainability and San Francisco

I discovered an article on the Siemens corporation's website regarding San Francisco and the fact that it's the most environmentally sustainable city in the United States.  It was closely followed by New York, Seattle, Denver and Boston as the top five.  These cities were compared out of 27 total by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The study, known as the Green City Index was commissioned by Siemens.  To determine the most sustainable city, they looked at 9 environmental categories: CO2 emissions, energy, land use, buildings, transport, water, waste, air quality, and environmental governance.  Eric Spiegel, the president of the Siemens corporation identified these cities as "the driving force behind the nation's sustainability efforts."  He goes on to say, "Despite the fact that we don't have a federal climate policy... 21 of the 27 cities have already set their own carbon reduction targets.  Cities are creating comprehensive sustainability plans, utilizing current technology, and proving everyday that we don't have to wait to create a more sustainable future."  I was excited to read this quote because I completely agree that NOW is the time to create sustainable cities, and I'm glad that such a powerful, influential man shares my viewpoint.  The cities that performed the best on the survey were found to have plans that covered every category of sustainability (CO2 emissions, water, land use, etc.)  The Green City Index seems to be a very precise means of determining the most sustainable areas in our country, so we can follow their example across all of the United States.

Link: http://www.siemens.com/press/en/pressrelease/?press=/en/pressrelease/2011/corporate_communication/axx20110673.htm