A nationwide environmental group has named Austin as one of America’s “2010 Smarter Cities.” Austin joins three other Texas cities on the National Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) list of US cities committed to solving future energy needs through a combination of renewable energy and conservation measures.
The NRDC study looked at a number of factors in determining which cities made the cut. Among these were usage factors such as the percentage of energy derived from renewable sources as well as the amount of energy used per capita. In addition, the study also considered whether or not community-wide planning geared towards anticipating future energy use was in place.
The study cites Austin’s strengths in distributed energy production, use of renewables including wind and the city’s climate protection plan as justification for inclusion on the smarter cities list.
In addition to energy usage, the Smarter Cities initiative plans to rank cities on ten additional sustainability factors including transportation, water issues, green building, smart growth, environmental justice, waste prevention, food security, air quality, green space and standard of living. City rankings for these additional categories will be released over the coming months.
In the large city category, Austin was joined by Dallas and El Paso while Denton, Texas made the grade in the small city category.
