-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 1
- Name
- Los Angeles, CA
- Emission
- 1,858 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 2
- Name
- San Francisco, CA
- Emission
- 1,892 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 3
- Name
- Sacramento, CA
- Emission
- 2,026 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 4
- Name
- San Diego, CA
- Emission
- 2,098 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 5
- Name
- Riverside, CA
- Emission
- 2,324 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 6
- Name
- Seattle, WA
- Emission
- 2,355 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 7
- Name
- Portland, OR
- Emission
- 2,358 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 8
- Name
- Boston, MA
- Emission
- 2,549 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 9
- Name
- New York, NY
- Emission
- 2,563 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 10
- Name
- Philadelphia, PA
- Emission
- 2,865 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 11
- Name
- Baltimore, MD
- Emission
- 3,555 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 12
- Name
- Phoenix, AZ
- Emission
- 3,565 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 13
- Name
- Washington, DC
- Emission
- 3,717 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 14
- Name
- Las Vegas, NV
- Emission
- 3,882 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 15
- Name
- Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Emission
- 4,282 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 16
- Name
- Orlando, FL
- Emission
- 4,379 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 17
- Name
- Houston, TX
- Emission
- 4,506 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 18
- Name
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Emission
- 4,511 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 19
- Name
- Cleveland, OH
- Emission
- 4,598 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 20
- Name
- Chicago, IL
- Emission
- 4,985 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 21
- Name
- Tampa, FL
- Emission
- 4,992 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 22
- Name
- Minneapolis-St Paul, MN
- Emission
- 4,997 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 23
- Name
- Detroit, MI
- Emission
- 5,124 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 24
- Name
- Denver, CO
- Emission
- 5,400 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 25
- Name
- Atlanta, GA
- Emission
- 5,569 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 26
- Name
- Cincinnati, OH
- Emission
- 5,610 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 27
- Name
- St. Louis, MO
- Emission
- 6,284 kg CO2/yr
-
- Emission time series
- Rank
- 28
- Name
- Kansas City, MO
- Emission
- 6,984 kg CO2/yr
-
What's going on here?
We're ranking U.S. cities based on the greenness of their available housing stock. In the graph above, each line represent a city's greenness over time. (You can hover over a line to see which city it represents. Lower lines are better.)
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How does it work?
Every day our system looks at new for-sale listings for the top 28 markets on Zillow, a real-estate listings site.
It then submits each of the listings to Brighter Planet's emission estimates web service and determines an average annual carbon footprint for a home in each city.
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But how does it really work?
Zillow listings like this one in Atlanta contain a number of useful property attributes, namely zip code, bedrooms, bathrooms, sqft, and property type.
These attributes map to characteristics defined on Brighter Planet's carbon model for residences. For a detailed sample methodology, see our analysis of the Atlanta house.
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So you can figure out how green a house is just by looking at those five things?
We can take a pretty good guess. Zillow doesn't provide details like whether the house has solar panels or super-insulated construction. But from those five things we can figure out the average energy use for homes in that part of the country and factor in things like the house's size, building type, and local climate to get an estimate of greenhouse gas emissions.
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Is Zillow really great for letting you guys do this?
Yes, they are.
