Environmentally conscious New Yorkers, rejoice! The Daily Beast has just declared New York the United States’ most environmentally friendly city. In honor of Earth Day last week, the blog conducted a nationwide study to find the greenest city. Cities with over 100,000 people were judged on four categories: the number of people who claim to be environmentally conscious, the number of people who recycle, the number of households that use solar energy, and the average number of weekday trips on the public transit system.

New York sits as the top of the list with 43% of the city’s inhabitants claiming that they “think and act eco-consciously,” and 68% say they recycle. Of course, we also kick ass in using public transportation — approximately 13,303,000 trips are taken on public transit every week. The MTA itself estimates that public transit prevents 400 million pounds of carbon monoxide and other toxic substances from being released into the air every year.

However, even though New York ranks as the greenest city in America, only 0.01% of the city’s homes use solar heating. Why don’t you try to find space for a solar heater? Didn’t think so.

Still, within the city, NYU especially can still do a lot more to be environmentally friendly. Every year, the amount of paper consumed on campus would create a stack twice as tall as the Empire State Building. Every year, we use enough water to fill half of the Central Park Reservoir. And every year, hundreds of thousands of plastic bags are used at the NYU Bookstore.

So don’t let the New York’s number one spot make you complacent. Remember to recycle, turn off the lights, bring canvas bags, and print double-sided. Visit NYU’s Sustainability site for more tips on how to be green.

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