12 Cities Leading the Way in Sustainability

Eugene, located roughly 100 miles south of Portland, has a population of just over 150,000 people, but ranks highly among America’s greenest cities. The city gets 88 percent of its energy from renewable sources. Mayor Kitty Piercy, elected in 2005, oversaw the establishment of the city’s first Sustainability Commission, dedicated to overseeing green infrastructure and development in Eugene. Only a year after it opened in 2007, Eugene’s public transit system was nominated for an international sustainability award for being one of the first diesel-electric hybrid systems to operate in the U.S.