Sustainable US states ranked

A new study has named North Dakota as the least environmentally friendly state in the US. California topped the table.

The analysis was carried out for IT Asset Management Group, an IT asset disposal and data destruction provider. Each state’s performance across five key sustainability metrics was measured:

• 4‘Eco-friendly’ vehicles
• Emissions
• Recycling
• Energy
• Waste

Each metric was scored out of a possible 100 points to create a final ranking. The recycling metric the percentage of consumer packaging material successfully recycled while the waste index used landfill waste per 100 000 tons. The use of renewables in energy generation contributed to the energy rating.

Least sustainable 

North Dakota was assessedat 24.47. Despite scoring strongly for eco-friendly vehicles, the state came bottom for emissions, with its CO2 emissions per capita increasing by 205% since 1970, by far the largest increase in the country. Its performance in the recycling and waste was subpar, at 34th and 43rd, respectively. 

Most sustainable

California boasts an impressive overall score of 68.27. The state scored well on the  vehicles metric, securing the second-highest spot nationwide. It has the highest percentage of hybrid or electric vehicles in the country at 7.7%. California also scored highly for the ‘energy’ metric, using the second least energy per capita of all 50 states.