Cities on the West coast are making waves in efforts to stop climate change, says Fast Company writer Eillie Anzlotti. A new ranking of the 40 most sustainably powered cities in the U.S., conducted by Commercial Cafe, found that San Francisco was the most sustainable city, followed by Seattle, Portland, Ore., Minneapolis, and Eugene, Ore.

The study analyzed how much of a city's energy comes from green sources, and determined its total carbon emissions from activities like transportation.

To begin with, Commercial Cafe looked to the Carbon Disclosure Project, an open data portal that analyzes each city’s mix of energy sources. For each of the five renewable energy sources–hydropower, geothermal, wind, solar, and biomass–cities earned up to five points per category (the more points, the better). Conversely, cities were awarded points for how little they relied on sources like coal, oil, and gas. Each city also received up to 30 points inversely proportional to its total CO2 emissions. A city like San Francisco, with relatively few emissions, received much closer to 30 points than a place like Dallas, whose emissions are fairly high, which knocked its score.

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