Not so Green

The National Geographic Society just released its Greendex 2008 survey of consumers in the 14 countries of the world that use 75% of the world’s energy resources.

The survey measured each country’s environmental impact, by comparing the behaviors of its citizens in 4 areas: housing, transportation, food, and consumer goods.

Housing included size of homes, water consumption and the amount/type of energy used.

Transportation measured ownership of private vehicles and usage, length of regular commutes by car and use of public transportation.

Foods looked at the consumption of foods with high environmental impacts like bottled water, meat and seafood and how far foods consumed had traveled (as opposed to consumption of locally grown products).

Goods compared the amount of things that people buy and how long they’re used, whether they’re recycled/reused or thrown away.

Here are some of the scores, with India and Brazil the top two greenest countries and Canada and the US, the least green countries in the world.

India – 60
Brazil – 60
China – 56.1
Mexico – 54.3
Hungary – 53.2
Russia – 52.4
UK – 50.2
Germany – 50.2
Australia – 50.2
Spain – 50.0
Japan – 49.1
France – 48.7
Canada – 48.5
USA – 44.9