10 Best States for Green Alternatives to Living + Working + Commuting

When you decide to go green, the scarcity of options for implementing sustainable living in your life could be surprising. However, apart from the daily little routines you can carry out to help our planet, you can choose to modify three aspects of your life that are significantly increasing your carbon footprint: where you live, where you work, and how you commute from one place to another.

Looking at the number of options for green alternatives in each state and considering them relative to each state’s population, we can find out where you would have the most options for going green. Here are the top 10 states for green alternatives, according to an analysis by apartment search website RENTCafé.

The District of Columbia gets the top score of 90.27, with a ratio of only 200 people per each LEED-certified commercial building, 4,900 people per every EV charging station, and 200 people per each shared bike. California takes the second place, scoring 85.26, due to its large population, which translates into a higher ratio of people to green alternatives. At the other end of the spectrum, the states with the lowest Green Score (meaning a high ratio of people per each green alternative) are West Virginia, Nebraska, and North Dakota, with scores below 30.

Check out their methodology and more data for all 50 states here.