New York State ranks as No. 2 greenest state

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – Having a green thumb might have more of an impact on your wallet than it seems at first glance. Our environmental and financial needs are the same in many areas: providing ourselves with clean drinking water and healthy food, for example. We also spend money through our own consumption and taxes in support of environmental security.

On top of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, the United States also had the third costliest year on record for natural disasters, with damages adding up to $343 billion. While some disasters are completely unavoidable, others are made a whole degree worse by humans. For example, one big factor in the high amount of hurricanes in recent years has been unusually warm Atlantic waters. It’s possible that living more sustainably and using greener energy sources could prevent us from having such a bad hurricane season in the future- and saving a lot of money on repairs as a result.

We should all strive to do our part and save the world for future generations. To highlight the greenest states and call out those doing a poor job in caring for the environment, WalletHub compared each of the 50 states on 25 key metrics.

New York State, according to the study, actually had a greener thumb across the board than most other states in 2021. The Empire State ranked third overall for environmental quality, leading it to a second-place finish in a ranking of the nation’s most environmentally-friendly states. The state was outpaced only by its easterly neighbor- Vermont.

Source: WalletHub

Most environmentally-friendly states

Overall Rank	State	Total Score	Environmental Quality	Eco-Friendly Behaviors	Climate-Change Contributions
1	Vermont	79.77	2	1	30
2	New York	77.53	3	9	8
3	Hawaii	75.86	1	11	15
4	Maryland	75.53	9	4	7
5	California	75.49	18	3	6
6	Massachusetts	72.36	8	16	2
7	Minnesota	72.27	4	8	19
8	Connecticut	71.26	12	12	1
9	South Dakota	69.81	7	22	11
10	Maine	69.69	10	5	25
11	New Hampshire	68.82	5	34	3
12	Colorado	68.50	11	7	23
13	Michigan	67.58	6	25	18
14	Rhode Island	66.92	20	21	4
15	Washington	66.35	17	6	22
16	Oregon	66.17	33	2	38
17	Wisconsin	63.73	35	13	16
18	Virginia	63.60	14	18	21
19	North Carolina	63.45	31	23	12
20	Delaware	62.56	26	27	13
21	Nevada	62.51	45	10	9
22	Montana	60.89	24	24	26
23	Illinois	60.45	22	19	29
24	Pennsylvania	59.92	19	14	37
25	New Jersey	59.25	47	20	5
26	Idaho	58.83	39	31	10
27	South Carolina	58.81	28	39	17
28	Nebraska	57.69	16	37	27
29	Utah	57.68	36	15	34
30	Ohio	57.43	29	35	24
31	Iowa	56.45	21	17	42
32	Missouri	55.85	23	33	36
33	Georgia	55.32	30	43	20
34	Tennessee	54.21	37	44	14
35	Kansas	53.33	40	30	35
36	Arizona	52.38	44	29	32
37	New Mexico	52.27	46	26	28
38	Arkansas	52.12	13	46	33
39	Indiana	51.83	34	36	41
40	Florida	51.76	25	41	39
41	Texas	50.72	41	28	40
42	Oklahoma	46.36	42	38	43
43	Alaska	44.89	49	40	31
44	Wyoming	43.22	32	42	46
45	Kentucky	42.41	27	47	45
46	North Dakota	40.52	15	32	49
47	Alabama	39.19	38	45	47
48	Mississippi	34.62	50	49	44
49	Louisiana	29.67	43	50	48
50	West Virginia	20.65	48	48	50

Courtesy WalletHub.

Here is how New York State ranked against other states:

No. 12 – Air Quality
No. 5 – Soil Quality
No. 14 – Water Quality
No. 13– LEED-Certified Buildings per Capita
No. 19– % of Renewable Energy Consumption
No. 3 – Energy Consumption per Capita
No. 1– Gasoline Consumption (in Gallons) per Capita

In order to determine the greenest states, WalletHub compared the 50 states across three key dimensions: 1) Environmental Quality, 2) Eco-Friendly Behaviors and 3) Climate-Change Contributions. Those dimensions were evaluated using 25 relevant metrics, which were graded on a 100-point scale with a score of 100 representing the highest level of eco-friendliness. Then, each state’s weighted average across all metrics was used to calculate its overall score and the resulting scores were used to rank-order the states.

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