Party like it is Earth Day because indeed it is. (I’m celebrating gravity by refusing to jump all day.) Here in Kansas, we certainly can celebrate Earth Day, but a new study found that we perhaps don’t have as much to cheer about as some other states.

The financial website WalletHub has released its list of the 2016 Greenest States. Kansas is found to be the 39th greenest state. I’m pretty sure “greenest” is a term to measure how environmentally friendly we are, not the color of our gills as we continue to watch Kansas revenue estimates come into the Statehouse.

As always, take these ranking for whatever you think they are worth. Being rankings and all, they are subjective. But these rankings do use reputable data sources, such as the U.S. Census, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Green Building Council and several others to measure categories such as air quality, soil quality, water quality, energy consumption, and other such measures.

Here’s a look at how Kansas and some other states in our region ranked overall:

• No. 23: Colorado

• No. 30: Missouri

• No. 39: Kansas

• No. 40: Iowa

• No. 45: Oklahoma

• No. 46: Nebraska

Top-ranked state: Vermont

Bottom-ranked state: Wyoming

The study ranked the states in three broad categories. The first is “environmental quality.” That measures items such as municipal solid waste per capita, air quality, water quality, soil quality, and energy efficiency. Here’s a look at how we did:

• No. 12: Missouri

• No. 14: Iowa

• No. 17: Kansas

• No. 28: Colorado

• No. 32: Nebraska

• No. 48: Oklahoma

So, if things like good soil, good air, and good water are the types of things you think of when you think of being Earth-friendly, Kansas actually is above average in those categories.

The second category is “eco-friendly behaviors,” and that includes items such as the number of LEED-certified buildings per capita, amount of renewable energy used, gasoline consumption per capita, water consumption per capita, and alternative fuel vehicles per capita. Here’s a look at how we did:

• No. 15: Colorado

• No. 30: Iowa

• No. 33: Kansas

• No. 37: Missouri

• No. 43: Nebraska

• No. 47: Oklahoma

The third category is “climate-change contributions,” and that includes items such as carbon dioxide emissions per capita, methane emissions per capita, nitrous oxide emissions per capita, and fluorinated greenhouse gas emissions per capita. Here’s how we did:

• No. 31: Colorado

• No. 33: Missouri

• No. 38: Oklahoma

• No. 43: Kansas

• No. 44: Iowa

• No. 47: Nebraska

As you can see, farm states didn’t fare particularly well in that category. Many of the things measured have a lot to do with crop and livestock production. If ever there is a ranking on feeding the world, however, we will do much better.

The report did provide several other individual rankings. Kansas showed up on one. We were No. 47 in the amount of LEED-certified buildings per capita. Only West Virginia, Nebraska and Iowa had fewer. I also noticed Missouri showed up on one. It has the least amount of municipal solid waste — trash in layman’s terms — per capita of any state in the country. For anybody who has ever been to an Ozark gift shop, this shouldn’t be a surprise. They throw nothing away, but rather just stamp “Welcome to the Ozarks” on it. Don’t get me wrong. I love my collection of such items.

Anyway, Happy Earth Day. Lawrence will celebrate formally tomorrow. Check out our Out & About column for details on the parade and party in the park.

In other news and notes from around town:

• We probably don’t spend enough time in Lawrence thinking about Kmart. Lawrence’s Kmart store closed in 2003, but the company is still a major part of our economy. Kmart operates a large distribution center along the Kansas Turnpike in northern Lawrence.

So, news on Thursday that Kmart is closing 68 more stores is not good news for Lawrence. I have no idea how, or if, the store closures will impact workforce levels at the Kmart distribution center in Lawrence. But I would think economic development leaders should be rooting for a Kmart turnaround pretty hard these days. Numbers from the Economic Development Council of Lawrence and Douglas County list the distribution center as having 320 employees, making it one of the 12 largest employers in the community. Perhaps even more significantly, the distribution center pays taxes on about 1.05 million square feet of industrial space along the turnpike. I think it is the largest building in Douglas County, but I’ve misplaced my tape measure, so I can’t say for sure.

Some of the news coverage yesterday about the Kmart closings — only one in Kansas, Hutchinson — was eye opening. Here’s some information as reported by Fortune:

• Kmart store totals will drop to just less than 900, down from about 1,400 in 2008.

• Kmart’s parent company, which includes Sears, has logged a total of $8 billion in net losses since 2010.

• 25 years ago, Kmart was larger than Wal-Mart.

• Sales during the key holiday quarter of 2015 were down 7.2 percent at Kmart.

Importantly, though, the company is projecting a return to profitability this year, according to the Fortune article. That certainly would be a good sign. The article also talked about how the company plans to transform itself into a “membership-based retailer that will be less reliant on physical stores.”

So, lots to keep an eye on. But this thought also struck me. I’m pretty certain I haven’t been in a Kmart since the one in Lawrence closed. That’s 13 years ago. More importantly, I don’t think my wife has been in one since then either. More than a decade that my wife hasn’t been to a Kmart: Trust me, that is not a metric any retailer wants to have.