What if we told you that drinking coffee could save the world? You'd think we were off our rockers, but thanks to the results of a new study, a correlation has been found between America's top coffee-drinking cities and eco-friendliness.

By GreenraystudioAlex Upshur (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Specifically, the cities with the most coffee shops are also the cities with most businesses that have adopted environmentally-friendly practices. The study looked at a sample group of 728 cities with populations of 50,000 people and that most of the coffee-concentrated areas are out west. Not surprisingly, six of the top ten cities are in Washington State. Santa Monica is the java shop "hub" so-to-speak while Seattle (Starbucks's place of origin) was the green. Here is a definitive list of the finalists:

Top 10 coffee-drinking cities in the U.S.:

1. Santa Monica, CA - 5.1 coffee shops per capita; 3.6 GA score
2. Redmond, WA - 4.9 coffee shops per capita; 4.3 GA score
3. Everett, WA - 4.5 coffee shops per capita; 3.9 GA score
4. Medford, OR - 4.4 coffee shops per capita; 4 GA score
5. Vancouver, WA - 4.2 coffee shops per capita; 4 GA score
6. Sarasota, FL - 4.1 coffee shops per capita; 2.4 GA score
7. Seattle, WA - 4.1 coffee shops per capita; 4.4 GA score
8. Auburn, WA - 4 coffee shops per capita; 3.7 GA score
9. Minneapolis, MN - 3.9 coffee shops per capita; 3.5 GA score
10. Bellingham, WA - 3.9 coffee shops per capita; 4.2 GA score

Image courtesy of infogroup