Recent Oakland Sustainability Awards

Oakland has a strong legacy of environmental leadership, and has been recognized as a top ten green U.S. city eight times in the last four years, including recently being ranked 4th among large U.S. cities by both the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Mother Nature Network.



Bicycle Friendly Community – In September 2010, Oakland was recognized as a Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists, one of only 18 communities nationwide to receive an award this cycle. Learn more.

Top Ten City – Oakland was ranked 4th among U.S. cities over 250,000 in population by the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) July 2009 Smarter Cities Rankings. 



 Top Ten Green City – Oakland was ranked 4th among U.S. cities by the Mother Nature Network’s July 2009 Green Cities rankings.

Top Ten Sustainable City – Oakland has been named one of America’s “Top Ten Sustainable Cities” in each of the last three rankings (2005, 2006, 2008) performed by Sustainlane. In 2008, Oakland was ranked the 9th most sustainable city of the 50 largest cities in America.

Top Ten Green City – Oakland was named one of America’s “Top Ten Green Cities” two years in a row (2005 and 2006) by The Green Guide. An online magazine featuring green living tips, product reviews, and environmental health news, owned and operated by the National Geographic Society. 


 Top Five Green City – Oakland was ranked #4 on the list of the 50 greenest cities in the country by Popular Science.

Top Twenty Places to Live – Oakland was named one of “The 20 Best Towns in America” by Outside Magazine in July 2008.

City Solar Award – Oakland was awarded a 2007 City Solar Award by NorCal Solar for having the most solar power-generating capacity installed among large cities in 10 counties around the Bay Area. 

Storm Water Management Award – In October 2007, the City of Oakland's Watershed Improvement Program received a First Place National Storm Water Management Program Excellence Award from the U.S. EPA. Oakland received this award for its projects, policies and guidance documents aimed at protecting headwaters, promoting storm water infiltration, and protecting and restoring vegetated riparian corridors.

 Phoenix Award – In 2004, The City of Oakland and East Bay Habitat for Humanity were awarded the prestigious Phoenix Award for their work to clean up and redevelop a brownfield site into a Habitat for Humanity housing development for four low-income families at the corner of Fruitvale Avenue and Davis Street.

Mayors Climate Protection Award – In June 2008, Mayor Dellums was one of only a handful of mayors to receive a 2008 Mayors’ Climate Protection Award Honorable Mention. Mayor Dellums accepted the award on behalf of the tremendous work being done by the city of Oakland at the 76th annual Conference of Mayors' meeting for Oakland’s innovative food scraps recycling program which will help curb global warming.