Wilmington named among ‘greenest’ cities in the U.S. for renters

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You can’t drive around Wilmington for more than five minutes, it seems, without seeing a new apartment complex going up.

If there’s good news in that statement, it might be that, increasingly, many of the new apartments disrupting their former environments are considered to be eco-friendly once they are built.

ApartmentGuide.com, a website that lists thousands of available apartments nationwide, recently included Wilmington on its list of 11 “greenest cities in the U.S. for renters.”

Wilmington — the smallest city on the list by a pretty good margin — comes in at No. 9 on the list, ahead of Charleston, S.C., and Boston, which were tied in 10th place. ApartmentGuide.com deemed the top three cities in terms of green rentals to be San Antonio (No. 1), Richmond, Virginia (No. 2) and Plano, Texas (No. 3).

Perhaps our inclusion on a list with Atlanta (No. 8), Omaha (No. 7) and Austin (No. 4) means Wilmington is starting to rub shoulders with the big boys?

Wilmington was also rated as the greenest city for renters in North Carolina, with the closest Tar Heel city being Durham at No. 23.

According to ApartmentGuide.com, the rankings were determined by looking at how many rental properties locally had “green amenities” like solar panels, smart thermostats or access to electric vehicle charging stations.

Also taken into account was whether the apartments were in “walkable” areas (with nearby shops, restaurants, etc.) and had access to recycling services.

The study also checked to see whether buildings were “LEED-certified.” LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a “green building” rating system that grades developments on a number of different green building strategies.