Is Phoenix Going Green?

If you’ve visited Arizona’s largest city, you’ve probably gotten used to seeing it as a dry and increasingly smoggy desert metropolis that’s trying a little too hard to keep its lawns thriving. But if some in the city have their way, Phoenix will look very different in years to come. The city, reports Grist, has embarked on a slow but steady path to sustainability—embracing light-rail transportation and biofuels for its fleet of vehicles—and even greater density downtown to combat sprawl.

Writer Lisa Selin Davis also notes that the city has partnered with the four-year-old Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University to study and improve environmental practices.

Could fast-growing Phoenix soon be an eco-city that celebrates, without trying to erase, its desert beauty? Davis says the idea is “blossoming as slowly as a saguaro.” But it’s blossoming nevertheless.

Photo by laszlo-photo via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

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