How Green Is Your City? The SustainLane U.S. City Rankings [Paperback]

Warren Karlenzig (Author), Paul Hawken (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 22, 2007

In our carbon-challenged, post-Katrina world, how do America's largest cities stack up in terms of sustainability? Which cities are more self-sufficient and better-prepared for our uncertain future, and which cities are operating business-as-usual?

How Green is Your City? examines the outcome of a sustainability study of the 50 largest U.S. cities. How Green is Your City? employed 15 categories by which to measure each city's performance and ranked them overall according to category and cumulative results. Among those standards:

·         Public transit use

·         Walkability and bikability

·         Air and tap water quality

·         Planning/land use

·         City innovation

·         Affordability

·         Energy/climate change policy

·         Renewable energy

·         Local food/agriculture

·         Green economy

·         Sustainability management

Leading the pack is Portland, Oregon, with its high quality of life and commitment to green building, local food, alternative fuels and renewable energy, while Columbus, Ohio, with its dependence on the automobile, coal-generated power and poor public transit ridership, ranks at the bottom.

How Green is Your City? offers an in-depth analysis of each city's management policies, strengths and challenges, as well as the emerging job and tax base expansion opportunities with the growth of clean technologies.

How Green is Your City? will appeal to city planners, economic development professionals, legislators, green businesses, as well as anyone interested in their quality of life and making their city a more sustainable place.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Warren Karlenzig is Chief Strategy Officer and Research Director for SustainLane. He has worked as a strategic consultant with federal agencies, major cities and the world's largest corporations for more than 15 years. Formerly, he was Editor-in-Chief of Knowledge Management magazine, and Lead Strategist for Dimension Data/ Proxicom. His areas of expertise include planning complex information and data systems, and communications. In sustainability, Warren has been a leading consultant with clients including the White House Office of Science and Technology, the US EPA Futures Group and the US Dept. of Energy. His book, A Blueprint for Greening Affordable Housing was the first substantial work on the subject (Global Green USA, 1999) and he was involved with San Francisco's influential Sustainability Plan, formally adopted by the City's Board of Supervisors in 1997. He coordinated and co-authored the "Economy and Economic Development" section of the plan, which was directly cited in San Francisco's 1999 and 2003 green municipal building ordinances.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: New Society Publishers (April 22, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865715955
• ISBN-13: 978-0865715950
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,757,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Warren Karlenzig is founder and CEO of the California-based sustainability consultancy Common Current, (www.commoncurrent.com). He has worked over 20 years with the United Naitons, government and corporations developing strategic, financial and metrics-based operational sustainability capacities.

Warren's clients have included the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, White House Office of Science and Technology; the US Department of State; US Environmental Protection Agency; US Department of Energy; Research Triangle Institute; the Asian Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability; and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Warren has led strategic corporate engagements with General Electric, Dow Brands, Saab, IDEO, Dean Foods, Chevron and numerous others.

He is author and architect of the first and largest U.S. city sustainability benchmarking study, How Green is Your City? The SustainLane US City Rankings (New Society Publishers, 2007). He contributed a chapter in Growing Greener Cities: Urban Sustainability in the 21st Century (Penn Press/ Wharton School of Business, 2008). Warren was co-author of the City of San Francisco's official 1997 Sustainability Plan's "Economy and Economic Development" section and is on the Boards of the Global Climate Center and the Korea Green Foundation. He has appeared in international media including People's Daily (China), the BBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN and CNBC. A Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, he holds an undergraduate degree from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master's from Naropa University in Boulder, CO.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars How Green is My Review, May 21, 2007

By 

Webnebber (New York, NY, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Green Is Your City? The SustainLane U.S. City Rankings (Paperback)

This is a very well presented list of the Top 50 "Green" US Cities. The book gathers data about air quality, transportation, Green economy, Green buildings and other catergories and arrives at a average for each city. The book devotes around 2-3 pages per city, with some attractive photos spread throughout the book.

At points however, one might ask for more information in certain sections of the book, as some cities/topics are under-respresented. I found myself reading reviews of cities and wishing that there was more information about each place and perhaps more city specific information.

Overall, in my opinion, the book is very attractive and can have a place on your coffee-table, but needs a second edition with expanded information to have a place in your library.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some pleasant surprises!, July 1, 2007

By 

Liz Ellerbe (Fresno, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How Green Is Your City? The SustainLane U.S. City Rankings (Paperback)

This book is beautifully laid out, with all the criteria explained for each city. Several cities were ranked higher than I expected, due to my lack of knowledge of their "green" progress. If you want to move to where it's safe (disaster-wise), you can find it here. Or if your main thing is great air quality or any of the other rankings, there's a city for you.

I think it is more than a coffee table book, since I've spent considerable time with it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice, digestible "What If" book, June 22, 2007

By 

Toshi (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Green Is Your City? The SustainLane U.S. City Rankings (Paperback)

This book is a great introduction to many topics such as how cities use resources and what that means for quality of life in the near future. I'd recommend it for people who want to learn more and start discussions about the sustainability of where they live.

How Green is Your City is systematic, but it is also imaginative in that it explores how these cities might do in a world of expensive energy, global warming, and other uncertainties that don't yet exist. Like most books that propose a "What If" situation, it's fun.

The strength of the book is that it demonstrates these topics as a guidebook of cities so you can jump around like in a tour book. You can dip into descriptions and explore quick comparisons between the cities and their futures. It's like seeing the results of a series of wind tunnel test using the same "What If" conditions, it's playful and kind of fun to flip around in. To me it felt like traveling across the country and into the future, all at once.