Arizona Pushes for Sustainability

Sustainability is what Phoenix, Ariz., wants, even if it’s more brown than green.

Businesses, governments and individuals have taken various steps in the past few years to become more sustainable. But it takes more than alternative fuels, hybrid cars and ditching Styrofoam cups to be green. It’s going to take some time — potentially a generation or more.

“You’ve got 40 years until you make the conversion to the next thing, and we don’t know what the next thing is,” said Dave Thompson, president of Diversified Energy Corp. in Gilbert, Ariz.

It takes a long time to change habits, lifestyles and attitude, but the Valley could be at the forefront of that change on various levels, according to those in sustainable industries.

Solar Front

The biggest carrot-and-stick proposition for sustainability in the Valley and state is solar power.

The area already has a few big solar players, such as First Solar Inc. The Greater Phoenix Economic Council has been trying since last spring to convince state legislators to incentivize the industry to land more manufacturers in a region that gets more sun than any other in the U.S.

“When you have people that understand the global issues and underlying issues, then you get to see progress,” said John Balfour, president of PerfectPower Network in Phoenix, a solar installer and consulting business.

Balfour, who’s been in the solar industry for more than a quarter-century, said Arizona hasn’t been at the front of the pack in pursuing solar options. The state has ignored others, such as Oregon and New Jersey, and settled for second-tier status in the field.

There’s time to reverse the trend, but it takes an ideological buy-in from a host of parties — notably, leaders at the state and municipal levels — to make the tough choices required to see it through. It’s something most haven’t done yet, Balfour said.

Local leadership has been eagerly buying into the plan to turn the Valley of the Sun into a solar capital. GPEC is pushing a bill at the Legislature to provide incentives to lure solar companies, and the Arizona Corporation Commission is looking at possible issues to spur demand. But it will still take more, Balfour said.

Building Up

Construction is one area where plenty of leaders are on board, looking to improve the energy efficiency of buildings as they are constructed. Leaning on guidelines developed by the U.S. Green Building Council for its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program (LEED), architects and builders have found ways to capitalize on green building in the desert.

“The whole green industry is evolving,” said Robert Sty, an associate with SmithGroup in Phoenix.

Demand is growing within Arizona’s local governments as cities are calling for LEED certification of many new municipal structures. Scottsdale created a groundbreaking green-building program, and Phoenix and Chandler — where Sty serves on the green building committee — have been trying to advance the cause since then.

“The municipalities are really making a big push on their own buildings, and that’s where it starts,” he said.

Sty said as the green concept began to take hold, bigger developers started throwing their hats into the ring with projects such as the Tempe Papago Gateway Center, home to First Solar. He said there is a danger of having a dot-com-style bust as unqualified builders flood the field.

“What happened in the dot-com collapse was that the ones that were worth anything survived,” he said. “That will be the same with the green industry.”

Generational Change

The pace of change might seem glacial. While Sty said “green design” will be considered simply “good design” in three to five years, other changes — such as developing enough solar power for the region — will take much longer.

“It won’t be easy to convert the 10,000 megawatts of power we use,” said Thompson, whose company is working on strategies to develop alternatives to fossil fuels.

The first problem in creating a green society is weaning drivers and utilities off oil. Today’s infrastructure favors petroleum-based products, and that needs to shift to alternatives such as solar and wind power, Thompson said.

For the Valley to become a modern green haven, it must develop leadership in three areas: lowering the cost of solar panels so they don’t need to be subsidized; developing a longer-range electric car; and building more efficient air-conditioning systems, Thompson said.

He believes that will be a generational change, requiring about 40 years to transform Phoenix. And it will take involvement from federal, state and local governments.

“It’s going to take sustained government effort, because the consumer is going to default to the lowest prices,” he said.

At the same time, many businesses are looking at sustainable options. Arizona Businesses Advancing Sustainability, for example, is taking the lessons learned at large companies such as Arizona Public Service Co. and Intel Corp. and showing there is a green path to profitability.

“It makes good business sense to focus on sustainability and the environment,” said Todd Brady, corporate environmental director at Intel.

Intel has been looking at sustainable issues for years. Given its land and water needs, it often was a necessary element for the company to develop the latest in technology.

But as global environmental issues take a firmer hold on society, and more workers are trained through school about sustainable business methods, it will gradually transform the work force, Brady said.