Modern-green-office-building

Today the EPA released its second annual ranking of U.S. metropolitan areas with the largest number of buildings receiving the Energy Star label in 2009.  California cities took two of the top three slots, but that's no surprise as these cities are at the forefront of green building. 

Energy Star indicates that a building's energy performance is in the top 25% of buildings nationwide compared to similar buildings.  Several types of buildings — schools, hospitals, offices, retail stores, supermarkets, etc — can receive the label. 

Here's the list by number of projects (but see the comments below for a list by square footage):

  1. Los Angeles, CA, 293 buildings and 76 million square feet
  2. Washington, DC, 204 buildings and 55.1 million square feet
  3. San Francisco, CA, 173 buildings and 51.6 million square feet
  4. Denver, CO, 136 buildings and 31.5 million square feet
  5. Chicago, IL, 134 buildings and 59.9 million square feet
  6. Houston, TX, 133 buildings and 64 million square feet
  7. Lakeland, FL, 120 buildings and 11.5 million square feet
  8. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX, 113 buildings and 33.1 million square feet
  9. Atlanta, GA, 102 buildings and 29.6 million square feet
  10. New York, NY, 90 buildings and 50.4 million square feet
  11. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, 89 buildings and 34.5 million square feet
  12. Portland, OR, 80 buildings and 13.6 million square feet
  13. Boston, MA, 74 buildings and 28 million square feet
  14. Seattle, WA, 69 buildings and 20.1 million square feet
  15. Detroit, MI, 62 buildings and 12.9 million square feet
  16. Sacramento, CA, 61 buildings and 8.5 million square feet
  17. San Diego, CA, 58 buildings and 9.7 million square feet
  18. Austin, TX, 55 buildings and 8 million square feet
  19. Miami, FL, 54 buildings and 12.3 million square feet
  20. Phoenix, AZ, 52 buildings and 11.1 million square feet
  21. Ogden, UT, 51 buildings and 5.5 million square feet
  22. Charlotte, NC, 44 buildings and 4.7 million square feet
  23. Indianapolis, IN, 39 buildings and 8.2 million square feet
  24. Des Moines, IA, 36 buildings and 4.6 million square feet; Fort Collins, CO, 36 buildings and 2.5 million square feet; Philadelphia, PA, 36 buildings and 12.5 million square feet
  25. Louisville, KY, 35 buildings and 4.2 million square feet

According to the EPA, nearly 9,000 buildings in the nation received the Energy Star label in 2009.  That's an increase of about 40% year over year. 

[+] View the EPA Top 25 Energy Star Cities of 2009 list.