(Photo: Arianna Perricone) City rankings, whether for liveability, green action or ease of doing business, yield bragging rights or grounds for embarrassment and self-examination. Toronto’s municipal press office hoards such numerical medals on their website and residents can better convince far-off friends, or dare-I-say extended family, to pay an overdue visit based on the good word of some index. Toronto’s latest reason to boast or moan, depending on your expectations? The city ranks ninth amongst major metropolitan areas on the U.S. and Canada Green City Index released last week. While we’re still no Vancouver when it comes to being green–it ranks second behind San Francisco and ahead of New York City–the city has been doing some things right. The index measures and rates the environmental performance of 27 cities in nine categories: CO2 emissions, energy, land use, buildings, transport, water, waste, air quality and environmental governance. Sponsored by Siemens, the index was conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), an in-house research unit of the British magazine The Economist. Here are some clean thoughts to reflect on the next time you’re stuck in an inexhaustible queue of noxious vehicles in your longer-than-average commute: Ranking Toronto can be proud of: + 4th, Waste Toronto leads sustainable stardom with its waste management with its 44 per cent recycling rate (well above the 26 per cent index average), and its “well-regarded waste-reduction policies” such as composting, waste separation and volume-based trash payment. + 5th, Energy The city stands out with its below-average per capita energy consumption (40 gigajoule per person versus the 52 index average), its feed-in-tariff-and-loan program for green buildings, and its promotion of green and local energy production projects. Noted initiatives: Exhibition Place housing Canada’s largest single solar photovoltaic instillation and 750 KW wind turbine. + 7th, CO2 Toronto boasts some of the lowest CO2 emissions levels with an estimated 7.6 metric tons (well below the index average of 14.5 metrics tons). + 9th, Air You can breath easier knowing Toronto’s air pollution is better than average with 16 kg of nitrogen oxide emissions (compared to the 30 kg index average). Noted initiatives: 25 new regenerative-air street-sweepers introduced in 2003 have contributed to a reduction in air-borne particles and improved storm water quality. + 10th, Water The city’s has better than average water consumption with 431L of water per person per day compared to the 587L index average. Where there’s room for much improvement: + 13th, Buildings Toronto has only 1.8 buildings per 100,000 being certified by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), well below the 6.4 Index average. + 17th, Land Use Three words describe the reason for low ranking: uncontrolled suburban sprawl. + 22nd, Transport Toronto has the longest commute time in all of the 27 cities in the Index with residents requiring an average of 40 minutes to drive to work (compared to the Index average of 29 minutes). It also lacks “large, centrally located pedestrian-only zones,” according to the report. + 24th, Environmental Governance Despite having a number of individual climate-change plans, the “reporting and transparency of these plans fall below the standards of most other cities in the Index. 
