Miami may have been named by Forbes as America’s cleanest city for 2008, but that doesn’t mean we’re doing as well in urban sustainability ...yet.
Sustain Lane released its survey of America’s most sustainable cities which gauges “which cities’ public transit, renewable energy, local food, and development approaches are most likely to either limit or intensify the negative economic and environmental impacts of fossil fuel dependence.”
Miami slipped 5 places from last year to 34 out of 50.
Breaking the survey down into individual categories we rank highest and lowest in things we don’t have much control over: we’re ranked dead last in the “natural disaster risk” category (oh, no hurricanes), and eighth overall for cleanest air. Otherwise we’re not particularly a paragon or a total disaster in any of the other categories, but there’s lots of room for improvement.
Though we might have slipped a bit in the ranking, Sustain Lane applauded the city for many of its recent efforts including the Miami Green Commission’s tree planting initiative, The Dream-In-Green Foundation’s school outreach programs, and specifically lauds Mayor Manuel Diaz’s leadership. Last year he announced a plan for eleven climate protection measures. While it may be too soon to see the impact of these in the rankings, it seems likely Miami will reverse the drop next year.
