Portland Metro/Tigard Real Estate News

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Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Top 5 "Green" Cities

Portland Oregon has been listed in the top 5 "greenest" cities. Portland is in the Pacific Northwest and has more than 500,000 people. It has been a model of sustainable living for decades. They are recognized for smartly mixing urban and outdoor spaces.

Portland did not wait for it to become popular to be "green". Since its 1903 Portland has been leading by example to encourage cities to embrace green space in their urban planning. Thirty years ago Portland demolishing a six-lane highway to develop a waterfront park in its place. There are about 92,000 acres of green space, including 74 miles (119 km) of biking, hiking and running trails. Portland is one of the most bike friendly cities around. In fact about one quarter of commuters bike to work. It also has enacted an urban-growth boundary to contain the urban landscape and protect 25 million acres of forest and farms.

They were one of the first in the United States to enact a plan to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and was a founding member of the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign. Being a part of a greenest city list is nothing new for Portland and they plan to keep it that way. The city has 50 buildings that meet or exceed U.S. Green Building Council standards for sustainability. They have also set out to supply 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2010.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/five-amazing-green-cities.htm

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