Portland Number One Sustainable City-Again http://news.opb.org/article/3120-portland-number-one-sustainable-city-again/ City of Chicago Climate Action [pdf] http://www.chicagoclimateaction.org/ SustainLane's 2008 US City Rankings http://www.sustainlane.com/us-city-rankings/ United States Environmental Protection Agency: Personal Emissions Calculator http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html ConsumerReports: Saving on energy costs http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/home-garden/resource-center/saving-on-energy-costs-10-07/overview/energy-ov.htm It's not easy going green, but a number of American cities are ramping up their efforts to provide incentives for the construction of environmentally friendly buildings, 'green' roofs, and other policy steps that will hopefully reduce their total carbon footprint. This week, the SustainLane group released their listing of the "greenest" and most sustainable U.S. cities. The results were not terribly surprising, as Portland, Oregon took the top spot for the second year in a row, though some might be interested to learn that Chicago (which was better known in the 20th century for its industrial grit) came out quite well in the rankings, coming in at number four on the list. On a related note, the Chicago Tribune also set out this week to find the "greenest" Chicagoan around. After looking high and low, they came across one Ken Dunn, who resides in the tweedy and diverse community of Hyde Park. Dunn rides his bicycle year round (no small feat during a Chicago winter), heats his very modest apartment with a wood furnace, and also air-dries his clothes. Where the average American produces around 44000 pounds of carbon dioxide, Dunn's total for the year is a mere 3800 pounds. Dunn remains fairly low-key about the recent news, and commented, "Much of our country had a very frugal attitude in the late '40s, when I was first aware of household practices, and I've been trying to stay true to that." The first link will take visitors to a Chicago Tribune article from this Tuesday which reports a bit more on Kevin Dunn. The second link leads to a piece from Oregon Public Broadcasting which talks about Portland's recent first place finish in the annual SustainLane sustainable city rankings. Moving on, the third link will whisk users away to the city of Chicago's official climate action plan, complete with a "Climate Change 101" overview and helpful tips for residents and others. The fourth link leads to a complete list of the annual sustainable city rankings from SustainLane. For those who are interested in knowing about their own personal or household greenhouse gas emissions, the fifth link can help interested parties do just that. The last link leads users to a helpful set of recommendations on how to save on household energy costs, provided courtesy of Consumer Reports.