The Four Best Eco-Friendly Cities To Retire To Now

Consider these sustainable spots.

- Matt Krantz

FINDING THE BEST PLACE TO RETIRE TO used to be pretty simple. Lots of sunshine? Check. Affordable health care and housing? Check. But these days, eco-friendly initiatives also rank high on the priority list. “We want our golden years to be supported by places that also enhance our health and well-being,” says Mahesh Ramanujam, President and CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a nonprofit organization.

MONEY consulted with the USGBC and the AARP Public Policy Institute, cross-checking cities that scored highest on AARP’s Livability Index against those meeting USGBC’s LEED standards for eco-friendly city design. From the cross-section of these lists surfaced four cities and communities you might consider as eco-friendly retirement destinations.

1 WASHINGTON, D.C./ARLINGTON, VA.

The nation’s capital is routinely counted as a green city for multiple reasons, but transportation is a highlight. The Washington, D.C., Metro system is a standard-bearer inconvenient and clean public transportation. Nearly 15% of workers age 16 or older in the D.C. and nearby Arlington areas take public transit to work, which is three times as many as the national average, according to the Census Bureau’s 2012–2016 American Community Survey. The Beltway might be home to lots of hot air, but at least it’s clean. Not a single day of the 365 tracked by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index Report in 2017 was classified as unhealthy, and 147 were ranked as good. By contrast, there were only 38 good air days in Los Angeles in 2017, and air quality was unhealthy for the same number.