10 Greenest States According to 2014 Report Card

Being a green Canadian call centre, we like to promote our CSR business initiatives along with those of other like-minded businesses. We have explored this idea in posts like the best Corporate Citizens in Canada, the Top Organizations for Employee Engagement, the Greenest Canadian Employers, the Top Diversity Employers in Canada, the Top Canadian CSR Business List, the Canada’s Top Employers for 2013,  the top Canadian boards according to gender representation, the Top Canadian Boards According to Visible Minority and Aboriginal Representation, the  top countries for Clean Capitalism, the Green Business Leaders for 2013, the 10 Green Business Leaders, the B Corp Best for the World List, the top foreign corporate citizens in Canada, the most reputable companies, the most visible companies with the best reputation, the top 10 North American retailers for Carbon Productivity, the best green global retailers, the 10 most sustainable Canadian companies, the 10 Most Sustainable Companies, the 10 Most Sustainable Countries, the 10 best corporate citizens, the 12 most sustainable business, the top Canadian corporate citizens and the best foreign corporate citizens doing business in Canada. In honour of the 4th of July, we thought we’d give a nod to our neighbours to the south by featuring the 10 Greenest States from the 2014 Green Provinces and States Report Card released by Corporate Knight (CK). We previously wrote about the 2014 greenest provinces in Canada from this same report card and we covered CK’s 2012 Green Provincial Report Card.

CK is “a media, research and financial products company focused on quantifying and animating clean capitalism drivers for decision makers.” When putting together the 2014 list they paired down the number of indicators the provinces and states were judged on from 35 (used in 2012) to 10 (used in 2014 report card). The 10 key performance indicators (KPIs) used this year span across six categories: air and climate (KPI’s: carbon productivity and air pollution productivity); water (KPI: domestic water use per capita); nature (KPI: the percentage of a jurisdiction’s land including inland water bodies protected by law); transportation (KPI’s: number of persons per public EV charging station and vehicle kilometres driven per capita); waste (KPI’s: waste productivity and the rate of waste diversion); and energy, buildings and innovation (KPI’s: primary energy productivity and renewable power as a percentage of overall power generation in a jurisdiction). CK felt that these categories and KPIs reflect a more accurate depiction of the provinces and states than their past method.

Additionally, the provinces and states were able to earn bonus points (up to a maximum of 10) for green policies, regulations and programs not covered in the KPI’s. The bonus points were used to reward and encourage these types of green programs, which might not be covered under the KPIs. According to CK’s 2014 Green Provinces and States Report Card, the 10 greenest states are:

1. California – Score: 86.4%
2. Massachusetts – Score: 84.9%
3. New York – Score: 83.4%
4. Oregon – Score: 82.8%
5. Washington – Score: 82.7%
6. Connecticut – Score: 79.6%
7. Vermont – Score: 76%
8. Rhode Island -Score: 75.8%
9. Maryland – Score: 75.5%
10. New Hampshire – Score: 71.1%

Though there were many standouts on the list, the “Deep South states, such as Alabama and Louisiana, distinguished themselves as among the heaviest drivers, poorest recyclers, least efficient energy users and greatest emitters of greenhouse gases. Of note among these was Mississippi, which ranked as the least green state in America.”

This report card praises the efforts being made while shining a spotlight on where additional efforts are needed. Congratulations to California for achieving the lowest electricity use per capita in the country along with many other green accomplishments.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including inbound telephone fundraising, outbound telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery fundraising services, donation processing and receipting and direct mail fundraising services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all our business decisions  and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.