Los Angeles, California

The City of Los Angeles has become a leader in the green cities movement through progressive legislation and innovative policy makers. Green policy is supported through a variety of initiatives, including state-owned alternate fuel vehicles, landfill diversions, and large-scale tree planting projects. Such actions have permitted Los Angeles to set high goals and achieve great successes in the environmental protection and renewal movement. Other major U.S. cities have copied many of Los Angeles's projects in an attempt to improve the quality of life not just for individual municipalities, but for the nation and planet as a whole.

Los Angeles's major green efforts stem from a plan set forth in Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Green LA Program. The Green LA Program seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by ...