In 2013, Los Angeles reigns supreme for the sixth year in a row in the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) annual ranking of the top 25 U.S. cities with the most Energy Star-certified commercial buildings. Philadelphia broke into the top 10 ring for the first time this year, thanks perhaps, to the Philadelphia Building Energy and Benchmarking Law passed in 2012, which requires large city buildings to report their energy usage.
EPA's methodology for the ranking defined cities by the U.S. Census Bureau's "core based statistical areas," and then tallied the total number of building that earned the Energy Star certification in each city in 2013.
These cities ranked accordingly:
In addition to major city rankings, this year's data also included top 25 lists for mid-sized cities (populations between 200,001 and 2 million people) and small cities (populations under 200,000 people).
While the data does not compare the number of certified building against the total number of commercial buildings in the defined metro areas, according to the EPA, the Energy Star certifications in each cities equated to significant annual cost savings.
TOTAL ANNUAL COST SAVINGS OF TOP 10 MAJOR CITIES:
1. Los Angeles: $132.2 million
2. Washington, D.C.: $119.0 million
3. Atlanta: $53.4 million
4. New York: $142.4 million
5. San Francisco: $110.1 million
6. Chicago: $91.3 million
7. Dallas: $43.9 million
8. Denver: $40.2 million
9. Philadelphia: $28.1 million
10. Houston: $66.4 million
For the full breakdown of the top 25 cities, and additional information of the total floor space, cost savings, and emissions prevented, visit EPA's 2014 data set.
