eco-friendly cities – Eco Home Ideas

6 Eco-Friendly Cities That Are Too Good To Be True

It seems like the utopia we envisioned for the 21^st century was nothing more than pure fiction. With the levels of pollution rising and the ozone layer weakening more and more every day, it is a wonder if we will even make it to the next century. But there is still some hope. Throughout the world, there are cities who are doing their very best to become eco-friendly and fight off pollution.

The city of Zermatt is located on the edge of Matterhorn Mountain in Switzerland. It has resisted any and all attempts to become a major metropolitan city despite its popularity with tourists. You will not find an abundance of cars driving around here. Well you might see a few electric vehicles and plenty of bikes. The carbon footprint produced by Zermatt is virtually non-existent.

Similar to Zermatt is Freiburg in Germany. They have also adopted a car-free lifestyle. So if you want to enjoy the green hills that surround the city as well as the beautiful scenery you’ll have to do it on foot or while riding a bike.

The city of Oslo is one of the cleanest in Norway. It has replaced all of its energy producing facilities with renewable energy sources. We are not just talking about the things that power the city but also the vehicles like public transportation which now run only on biofuels instead of fossil fuels. They have also adopted a great recycling program and waste disposal system which is why Oslo is considered one of the cleanest cities in the world.

If you happen to visit Denmark, then visit Copenhagen. If the scenery and majestic castles don’t convince you to come again then perhaps the high environmental standards of living will. In order to fight off climate changes, nearly half of the residents use bikes to get to school or work. It is expected that this numbers will increase in the next few years.

If you are looking for a city that was made for bike riding then go down under mate to Adelaide, Australia. The city is so eco-green that it allows people to rent bikes for free. Plus it has over 29 parks that you can explore as you go on your little bike trek or hike. If you are not into bikes you can always use Tindo, a solar-powered bus that complete with A/C and internet service for its passengers. Aside from using solar power as a means of sustainable energy, the city is highly invested in recycling. It has even developed a program that allows for over 85 percent of the trash to be recycled.

Vancouver, Canada has implemented an ambitious plan to put an end to anything that leaves a carbon footprint in the city by 2020. To that end it has implemented bike paths that give the locals access to more parts of the city. This way people won’t feel the need to use their cars or public transportation as often.

These amazing cities are a beacon of hope for humanity’s future. Hopefully, their shining example will be contagious so that their eco-friendly philosophy spreads to every city on the planet. Then Earth can be the marvelous wonder we want it to be.

6 Eco-Friendly U.S. Cities You Have To Visit

So what criteria should a city meet to be considered eco-friendly? It could include measuring the quality of the air and water, the way recycling is enforced, the replacement of conventional energy sources with renewal ones like hydraulic, air and solar energies, cleaner modes of transportations that do not leave a carbon footprint. Even farms that produce organic products can put a city on the eco-friendly map.

Here are six cities that meet the criteria.

Austin, Texas is not all about horses and cowboys. They have also devoted a great deal of acres to the creation of parks, preserves and hiking trails. In addition, they are in the process to make their city entirely carbon free by the year 2020 by switching to renewable energy sources. Hybrid and electric cars are rapidly replacing fully gas powered vehicles.
Just because the air in L.A. sucks doesn’t mean that all of California should get a bad rap. Take the city of Berkeley for example. They are known for using an abundant amount of green technology like solar power, wind power, hydro-power, and biofuels to run their city. In addition, they also offer a bunch of options of high quality organic food products at restaurants as well.
What are the advantages of being a port city like Oakland in California? For starters, you are by the ocean, so you can use hydraulics as an energy source. Oakland is also known for having some of the freshest organic food sources available. The tap water is clean so you don’t have to invest in a filter or worry that you’ll suffer from contamination if you need to drink from the tap. Public transportation is hydrogen-powered. By the year 2020, Oakland hopes to be completely independent of oil based energy sources.
Boston, Massachusetts is the place to be in 2015. That’s because they’re implementing a plan called “Green by 2015”, in which they hope to replace gas powered taxi cars, motorcycles and public transportations with hybrid ones. They will also use recycled trash to power the city as well as use solar panels as an energy source.
San Francisco, California may be known for getting a whole lot of fog but it is also considered the country’s largest solar energy user. In addition to encouraging the local residents to recycle through neighborhood programs, the city has also banned the use of plastic bags at grocery stores.
If you hate to drive then ditch that car, buy a bike and move to Portland, Oregon. It has 200 miles worth of bike lanes. This has been instrumental in diminishing the use of gas-powered vehicles, which as we all know really messes with the ozone layer. Plus, the less cars they less of a chance you’ll have of getting hit while bike riding to work.

Some of these cities are bike-friendly, use sustainable sources of energy like solar panels or wind sails, or provide their residents with rich, nutritious organic foods that are free of chemicals and hormones. But however they are accomplishing their environmental-focused efforts, they are succeeding and more cities ought to take their example.