With Earth Day just around the corner, the website NerdWallet ranked Madison the greenest city in America.
The website examined the 95 largest cities in the country for these rankings. Anchorage, Ala., and Chorpus Christi, Texas, were ranked second and third greenest cities in the county, respectively.
According to the website, NerdWallet considered the city’s environmental quality and green transportation to determine its rankings.
The website also measured environmental quality by looking at a city’s air quality index score. The lower the score, the better the air quality for the city. Madison received a score of 41. The highest score on the list was Pittsburg, Penn., with a score of 56.
Green transportation was measured using the percentage of a city’s population that uses environmentally efficient methods to travel around the city, the website said. Madison scored a 38 percent in this category. New York City ranked the highest in green transportation with a 77.5 percent.
NerdWallet also cited Madison’s natural attributes as the main reasons for its high ranking, including the city’s 15,000 acres of lakes. The site also mentioned the city’s extensive biking and hiking trails and large number of local parks.
