Chicago rated poorly in 'greenest cities' study

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Bike shares, ride shares and the CTA can apparently only do so much to cut down on Chicago's carbon footprint, because the city was ranked in the bottom third of a new study of the "greenest" cities in the country.

The study, conducted by personal finance website WalletHub, analyzed the 100 most populous cities in the country based on 26 metrics such as air quality, greenhouse gas emission, average commute time by car and local green energy programs.

California was by far the greenest state, based on the study's findings. Six of the top 10 cities were in California, with four of those-San Diego, San Francisco, Irvine and San Jose-making the top five.

Each city in the study was assigned a score on a 100-point scale. San Diego was named the greenest city with a score of 72.53. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was the least eco-friendly with a score of 36.07. Chicago received 45.94 points.

Though California was dominant in the study, a handful of Midwest cities placed high in the rankings.

Minneapolis was the greenest of the Midwest at 12th place. Madison, Wisconsin, and St. Paul, Minnesota, followed in 13th and 14th place, respectively.

To view the full study results, click here.