Honolulu recognized amongst Greenest Cities in America by WalletHub

News Release from City and County of Honolulu, Oct 18, 2023

HONOLULU – Honolulu has been recognized as one of the Greenest Cities in America in 2023, according to the personal finance company WalletHub, ranking second in the nation behind only San Diego, California. The second place ranking is a ten-spot improvement from 2019 — the most recent year the rankings were released — when Honolulu finished #12 on the list.

WalletHub compared the 100 most populated American cities and measured their performance in a number of different categories, including Environment, Transportation, Energy Sources, and Lifestyle and Policy. Each category was further broken down into relevant metrics in areas such as smart energy policies, miles of bike lanes, green job opportunities, and greenhouse gas emissions per capita.

Honolulu excelled in the Transportation category and the Environment category, ranking second and third, respectively. The report also highlighted Honolulu as having the highest number of farmers markets per capita.

The category ranking with the greatest opportunity to improve the city’s score is Energy Sources, which ranked 26.

“It’s encouraging to see how we compare to other large cities as measured by outside groups. We should take pride in our strengths and the benefits those provide community, though this is no time for resting on our laurels. Even with important successes, we acknowledge and concur with the ‘room for improvement’ ranking with respect to the ‘energy sources’ category,” said Matthew Gonser, executive director and chief resilience officer of the Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency. “Continued commitment, partnership and progress on energy equity is the name of the game for long-term affordability through climate action. Imua!”

Across the City and County of Honolulu, progress and performance with regard to the City’s sustainability, climate change and resilience objectives is reflected in the Annual Sustainability Report, which helps ensure transparency in our efforts towards a more equitable and resilient Oʻahu. For the first time, the 2023 Annual Sustainability Report is displayed in an interactive dashboard format, allowing for more datasets and enabling users to filter, analyze and engage with data in greater detail than ever before.

To learn more about the efforts of the City and County of Honolulu’s Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency, click here: https://www.resilientoahu.org/

To view the full list of WalletHub’s Greenest Cities in America rankings, visit https://wallethub.com/edu/most-least-green-cities/16246.

—PAU—