Tufts University's Our Green Cities analyzed dozens of U.S. cities to find those with green friendly policies and projects. Albuquerque tied with Oakland at number five on the list.

2011 Sustainability Rankings - how does your city measure up?

What are the differences between the ranking criteria for 2010 and 2011?  Here's what Dr. Portney had to say:

"There is a new set of criteria (click on "Criteria" tab at left) used in constructing the scale and rankings for 2011.  There are several new items.  A city has to have adopted and implemented the program or policy in order to get credit.
 
This set of rankings is based on a different set of cities than the earlier ranking.  The earlier rankings included any city that claimed to have a sustainability program as of January 1, 2007.  It included some fairly small cities, like Boulder, Santa Monica, and even Brookline MA, with under 100,000 population.  This new set of rankings is for all of the 55 largest cities in the US.  That goes from about 335,000 population (Pittsburgh) to NYC at over 8 million.

In other words, we did the rankings for all of these cities regardless of whether they have any sort of formal sustainability policy. As it turns out, 44 of the 55 cities do have an official sustainability policy."

Rank      City             Sustainability Score

1         Portland, OR                     35
1         San Francisco, CA              35
1         Seattle, WA                       35

4         Denver, CO                       33

5         Albuquerque, NM              32
5         Oakland, CA                     32

7         Chicago, IL                      31

7         Chicago, IL                      31
7         Columbus, OH                  31
7         Minneapolis, MN               31
7         Philadelphia, PA                31
7         Phoenix, AZ                      31
7         Sacramento, CA                31

13       New York City, NY             30
13       San Diego, CA                   30
13       San Jose, CA                     30

16       Austin, TX                        29
16       Charlotte, NC                    29
16       Nashville-Davidson, NC      29
16       Tucson, AZ                       29
16       Washington, D.C.              29

21       Boston, MA                       28
21       Los Angeles, CA                28
21       Kansas City, MO                28

24       Dallas, TX                         27
24       Indianapolis, IN                 27

26       Fresno, CA                        26
26       Miami, FL                          26
26       Las Vegas, NV                   26
26       Raleigh, NC                       26
26       San Antonio, TX                26

31       Baltimore, MD                   25
31       Louisville Metro                 25

33       Cleveland, OH                   24
33       Fort Worth, TX                  24
33       Milwaukee, WI                  24

36       Atlanta, GA                       23
36       El Paso, TX                       23
36       Jacksonville, FL                 23

39       Honolulu, HI                     22
39       Houston, TX                     22
39       Long Beach, CA                22
39       Mesa, A Z                        22

43       Arlington, TX                   20
43       Memphis, TN                   20
43       Tampa, FL                      20

46       Omaha, NE                     19
46       St. Louis, MO                  19

48       Oklahoma City, OK          18
48       Tulsa, OK                       18

50       Detroit, MI                     17
50       Virginia Beach, VA          17

52       Pittsburgh, PA                16
52       Santa Ana, CA                16

54       Colorado Springs, CO      15
55       Wichita, KS                      7