Yahoo wanted to find the greenest city in America, and now it has: Hastings, Nebraska. Hastings will receive $250,000 to be used towards various environmental endeavors, and has also earned “a Yahoo!-hosted Nebraska-style BBQ and celebration.”
At first glance, this looks like something of a hollow victory. After all, with a population of less than 30,000 people, Hastings would probably remain beautiful regardless of its citizens’ actions. Then again, that fact shows Yahoo wasn’t favoring more well-known sites – the biggest city on its top ten list is Topeka, Kansas.
And it turns out that Yahoo wasn’t just looking at the amount of grass in any given area, either. “Current initiatives [in Hastings] include conversion of methane to energy at its pollution control center, local production of Ethanol E85, extensive networks of parks and hiking and biking trails, and installation of energy-efficient street lighting,” reveals a Yahoo press release.
Yahoo’s “Greenest City in America” challenge is only the latest in a series of conservation projects. Google has also gone green, and made announcements about a fleet of hybrid cars and some solar panel arrays just last week. Even Microsoft is getting on board . . . it appears that the corporations are vying for the title of “Greenest Company-With-A-Search-Engine in America.”
For today, however, the spotlight remains on Yahoo and Hastings. Also – I’m kind of hungry at the moment – let’s not forget that Nebraska-style BBQ.
