Ithaca is located in the heart of New York’s Finger Lakes region, an area of beautiful lakes, waterfalls, rolling hills, farmland, vineyards, and state parks. The city was just named the second “Best Green Place in America” in a survey commissioned by Country Home Magazine, which reported that more than sixteen percent of Ithaca's residents walk to work- the highest percentage in the nation. By combining walkers with bike riders and public transit riders with home office workers, Ithaca is number one when it comes to green commuters. (Image of 2005 Cornell Solar Decathlon Team entry above). Most of the green commuting in Ithaca is a result of Cornell University’s policies, which are a model for the entire country, and include things like indoor bike storage in new buildings and alternative fuel recharging areas for Cornell electric vehicles to encourage transportation alternatives. With 20,000 students, it is hard for the green scene in Ithaca to not be dominated by Cornell, which sits like emerald city, a shining beacon of greenness, on a hilltop overlooking the city and 40 mile-long, 400 foot-deep Cayuga Lake- the largest of the Finger Lakes of central New York State. University students, staff, and faculty members make up a third of Tompkins County’s population of 97,000 and support an amazing number of green initiatives. When it comes to real estate, Cornell has a lot of it. There are more than 260 major buildings on the 745 contiguous acres that comprise Cornell's flagship campus. How energy is generated and how efficiently it is used in all of this real estate is crucial to sustainability, and Cornell has been working hard to address clean energy production and energy efficiency. Because Cornell is so big- about 14 million square feet of indoor space across 260 campus buildings- it has established its own Green Building Oversight Committee, and it seems as if everything Cornell does revolves around sustainable issues.