Phoenix Rising: Mayor Gordon on Green Renewal in the Desert!

Phoenix Rising: Mayor Gordon on Green Renewal in the Desert!

Howdy folks, Lefty here again. Moseyed into Phoenix the other day on Old Paint - last time I was here this was still the Wild West, and about the only thing “green” in town was the cactus along the trail. But now, Phoenix is turning green faster than a tinhorn on a bronco or someone drinking the swill at Lily LaRue’s Saloon and Gent’s Club!

And there was Greenopolis’ Melissa McGinnis, interviewing Phoenix’s Mayor Gordon at GreenBuild on all the conservation initiatives afoot in town. Seems that Phoenix, despite growing out of its britches year after year, is not using one more drop of water to do so! And it’s all done by educatin’ the people. Now I drink whisky myself to conserve water, but you got to give them credit.

And speaking of credit, Phoenix is knocking down the cost barriers to solar energy. Any old sidewinder can get solar panels on their home at no upfront cost - just pay a simple lease along with your shrinking utility bills. Because if there’s one thing they got here in Phoenix, it’s sun. Why not use it to run all the gizmos?

They got a strong recycling program here too. See, nothing rots out here in the desert, so you got to reuse and recycle stuff to keep it from piling up, drying out, and blowing away like tumble weeds. So every week Phoenix folks can put their barrel of recycling, single stream like, out on the curb and it gets picked up and reused.

And that ain't all. Phoenix has got the largest alternative fuel vehicle fleet in the state - ethanol, biodiesel and the like. I ain’t talking about hay burners like Old Paint here! Although his horse apples make a fine methane fuel if I feed him right.

The new buildings in town are all LEED certified, which means they’re more energy efficient, and 90% of the lights in government buildings are low energy CFLs.

They even got a very cool green home a guy here remodeled that uses 60% less energy and water than it did before. Reuse and conservation in the desert; a recycled old cow hand like me can surely appreciate that.

Share