The Sacramento region ranked No. 13 among 43 U.S. metro areas in a report on America’s “green cities.”

The “Green Cities Index” ranks metro areas on a variety of environmental factors, including traffic congestion, transit use, water quality, carbon emissions, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified projects and number of “green” jobs. The index was compiled by the Business Courier of Cincinnati, which is owned by American City Business Journals, the parent company of the Sacramento Business Journal.

The index draws on data from a variety of government and research agencies.

For the index, the paper evaluated the 40 markets in which American City Business Journals publishes newspapers, plus Los Angeles, where the company operates a business-news Web site, and Indianapolis and Cleveland.

The index looked at such variables as commuting habits of residents, travel time and fuel use, and air and water quality.

Coming in first on the index was the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metro area. At No. 2 was the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont area. Honolulu ranked third. Austin and Boston rounded out the top five.

A searchable version of the database is available on the Business Courier Web site.