Looking for Love in All the Green Places: Best (and Worst) States for Eco-Friendly Dating

If you’re like most folks, you might be wondering “what the heck is eco-friendly dating?” Are we talking about taking a lover in an experimental micro-city off the grid or just having a nice conversation over an organic cup of joe at your local coffee shop?

As it turns out, there’s no definitive guide to this sort of thing, so we decided to try our hand at mapping out our nation’s green-dating landscape. From cataloging the number of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations that’ll get you to your hot date to accounting for vegetarian and vegan restaurants perfect for romantic dinners, we quantified which states are better for eco-friendly dating. Needless to say, our analysis yielded some interesting results. Here are some of the highlights:

• Oregon outranked every state thanks to plenty of singles in the dating pool and lots of green-living options throughout the city

• The top ten states for green dating are all coastal except for land-locked Nevada

• Although Alaska has the most coastline in the US and scores the highest in terms of general well-being, it comes in second to last for green dating

With tons of singles ready to mingle, more progressive populations, and plenty of earth-friendly date options, coastal states dominate the field. This correlates with findings from the dating website Green Singles, which counts its highest user concentrations in California, New York, and Florida. That said, regardless of where you live, Just Energy’s rankings of the best states for green dating may help you decide on your next big move or plan your next dream (green) vacation.

Hawaii anyone?

Interesting Findings About the Best States for Eco-Friendly Dating

Expert Perspective on Eco-Friendly Singles and the Green Dating Scene

Numbers can only tell you so much. That’s why we contacted Jill Crosby—CEO of greensingles.com and founder of the Conscious Dating Network (CDN)—to help us contextualize our findings.

Why do you think eco-friendly dating is becoming more popular?

“Eco-friendly people draw eco-friendly people. I’ve lived all over the country, but when I got the chance to live in Oregon, I jumped at it because I’d always wanted to live in a place that was so welcoming to that ideology … I think the idea of green living is definitely spreading and states are learning from each other’s initiatives. Just look at Detroit! They used to be in the car industry, but now it’s all about solar panels there.”

Do you see the trend of green dating growing in the future?

“I hope [green dating] becomes a normal trend. For our planet, it just has to be. Green dating just has to be a priority if we’re even going to be around in 50 years.”

What effect do you think that the green-dating mindset has on relationships?

“People care so much about the planet that they tend to be more caring, thoughtful, kind, and honest people. They’re not the kind selling out to corporations—they’re more thoughtful and responsible in relationships, too.”

Our top ten states are largely coastal except for Nevada. What are your thoughts on that?

“Makes sense that Nevada would stand out with solar power … You do see more democrats and liberals on the coast, which correlates with a lot of progressive mindsets, including green living.”

Methodology

Our analysts used five major data sets to determine our eco-friendly dating scores and rankings:

1. Single-person households

2. Renewable-energy production and usage

3. Vegan and vegetarian restaurants per capita

4. Overall well-being index score by state*

5. EV charging stations per capita

We graded states on each metric using a 51-point scale, with a score of 1 representing the most favorable conditions for eco-conscious singles. We then calculated the overall score for each state and the District of Columbia (Washington DC) based on its weighted average across metrics 1, 3, 4, and 5, and then averaged the renewables rating (2), using the resulting scores to rank every state and Washington DC accordingly.**

*States’ “well-being” was scored based on a measuring system that included questions regarding health, personal life, emotional well-being, and work environment.

** Data used to create our rankings were collected from the United States Census Bureau, United States Department of Energy, Gallup, and The Vegetarian Resource Group.