Now you can choose a big city or a small town if you are looking for a "green" lifestyle thanks to a new study of top-rated green towns with many smaller cities at the top of the list.

Burlington, VT came out on top in the 2007 Best Green Place America, produced by Sperling's BestPlaces a leading "best places" analyst.

Commissioned by Country Home Magazine the study measured 24 factors in 5 categories -- air and water, public transit, power usage, farmers markets, organic producers, and number of green-certified buildings -- to determine which of 379 major metropolitan areas are the best place you want to be to live a green life.

In a similar vein, but focused only on the nation's 50 largest cities, SustainLane's second annual 2006 City Rankings recently examined similar attributes to determine how they limit or intensify the negative economic and environmental impacts of fossil fuel dependence.

SustainLane's top sustainable cities were Portland, OR; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Chicago, IL and Oakland, CA.

Encompassing more cities, as well as the 50 in the SustainLane survey, BestPlaces/Country Home Magazine put smaller towns at the top of the heap, beginning with Burlington, VT; Ithaca, NY; Corvallis, OR; Springfield, MA and Wenatchee, WA.

No. 1 Burlington, population of 40,000, offers a unique Burlington Echo Info Project a federal grant-supported effort to keep citizens informed about air, water, land, and energy use, much as weather reports reveal climatic conditions.

"One of the most important elements of sustainability is public awareness," says former Burlington mayor, Peter Clavelle.

Burlington also has a soil factory that collects food scraps from restaurants, supermarkets, institutions and food manufacturers, and yard clippings and leaves from local residents and landscapers. The compost generates nutrient rich soil local farmers, gardeners and landscapers purchase.

Other findings include:

• More than 16 percent of Ithaca's residents walk to work -- the highest percentage in the nation. Combining walkers with, bike riders, public transit riders and home office workers makes Ithaca No. 1 when it comes to green commuters.

• More than 15 percent of city residents join the city government purchasing renewable energy. The West Coast city was the first to earn the Green Power Community designation from the Environmental Protection Agency.

• Springfield puts the "green" in home improvements by accepting donations of building materials and, in turn, sells them at discount retail prices. Donations include used and salvaged materials and building industry surplus stock.

• Wentachee, like Burlington, is big on education, especially for younger residents. Each year the city hosts the world's only Solar Drag Race. High school and college students, build and race solar-only propelled dragsters in a competition to win scholarships.

• Elsewhere, Charlottesville, VA, encourages the use of green roofs, rainwater harvesting, porous paving and rain gardens; Boulder, CO, has the nation's best organic food supply; Madison, WI's Eco-Fruit project focuses on reduced pesticide use in fruit production; Binghamton, NY's nonprofits promote healthy and organic eating habits and offer lessons about the benefits of a plant-based diet.

Published: March 21, 2007

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

A journalist for 35-years, Broderick Perkins parlayed an old-school daily newspaper career into a digital news service offering editorial content and consulting services. Perkins' San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group includes the flagship news site, DeadlineNews.Com, offering real estate, personal finance and consumer journalism, and a backshop, the Deadline Newsroom.