Phoenix Rising
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The City of Phoenix: Rising to the challenge of its 2050 sustainability goals WRITTEN BY
DAN BRIGHTMORE PRODUCED BY
CRAIG KILLINGBACK
AUGUST 2019
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CITY OF PHOENIX
The City of Phoenix is working towards zero carbon, zero waste, a 100-year supply of water, clean air, and parks and transit in every neighborhood. CSO Mark Hartman reveals how its 2050 goals are making it one of the most sustainable desert cities in the world.
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hen the Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Phoenix took up his post in 2014 the target was to become the most
sustainable desert city in the world. Five years later, Mark Hartman and the very innovative department heads across the City are setting their sights on a sustainability roadmap for 2050 to ensure progress for future generations in Phoenix. “Back in 2016 when City departments adopted these goals we asked: ‘What kind of city do we want to be in 2050?’” explains Hartman. “Instead of thinking ‘How did we get here?’, we want to be able to say, ‘We planned to get to this place’ and this is what the perfect city looks like — our 2050 environmental goals aim to articulate those long term desired outcomes. Setting out the long-term environmental goals of zero carbon, zero waste, clean air, a 100-year supply of water, and parks and transit in every neighbourhood will drive us AUGUST 2019
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CITY OF PHOENIX
“ Setting out the longterm goals of zero carbon, zero waste, clean air, maintaining our 100-year supply of water, and parks and transit in every neighbourhood will really drive us towards what we’re trying to achieve as a city” 06
— Mark Hartman, CSO, City of Phoenix
AUGUST 2019
towards what we’re trying to achieve as a sustainable desert city.” A big part of that sustainability journey is a series of major projects including the 91st Avenue wastewater biogas project (the largest facility of its kind in the US). “Our water department is capturing methane from our wastewater, putting it in a pipeline and generating revenue by selling it to the California green energy market. It’s a great example of finding a use for the methane from wastewater treatment. In addition to the biogas, we actually reuse nearly all of the wastewater.
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘BECOMING A CARBON NEUTRAL CITY’ 07 We’re ahead of the curve, which
would just build a treatment plant
encompasses how we focus our
before releasing it into the waterways,”
approach in the desert.” Along with
he says. “Instead, we’ve constructed
the biogas production, reclaimed
the Tres Rios Wetlands. It’s significant
water is also being diverted into
because we’re using nature to do the
irrigation for farming and agriculture
work for us and at the same time,
and for cooling at the Palo Verde
it transformed this desertscape into
Nuclear Generating Station. Mean-
a beautiful wetland home to 150 species
while, the final by-products, the
of birds. So in contrast to many of our
bio-solids which amount to 10%
human behaviors that are slowly
of total waste, become fertilisers
contaminating our ecosystem, we are
for non-food crops.
being restorative and enhancing
Hartman also notes the city’s approach to the final polishing of water has evolved. “Typically, you
nature so that it can thrive.” It’s not just the city’s infrastructure that is evolving. Phoenix is also w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com
CITY OF PHOENIX
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supporting sustainable home devel-
the winning design and the detail
opment with a series of initiatives as
construction drawings from Imirzian
part of its vision to have all new
Architects on our website so anyone
buildings net positive in both energy
can download the pre-approved plans
and materials by 2050. “We ran a
for free to build a net-zero energy
$100,000 competition to design a
home at a cost similar to current
beautiful home that is sustainable and
construction. And here in Phoenix, we
near net-zero, and yet can be built at
won’t charge building permit fees for
the cost of typical construction,” says
the first 25 homes. It’s an opportunity
Hartman, who notes that even with
to encourage home buyers to think
adherence to the latest building codes
differently about the energy savings
we’re a long way from buildings that
from well-insulated walls and high-
need little energy to condition them.
performance windows.” Hartman
“Our planning department has posted
highlights this focus also extends
AUGUST 2019
to government buildings. “We’re doing
implement new processes. “Public
deep energy retrofits in all of our
Works recently installed a state-of-
facilities,” he says. “We’ve put forward
the-art $15mn facility where we take
proposals on three specific sites
organics and use a state-of-the-art
where the $30mn budget will actually
Turned Aerated Pile (TAP) system to
be paid back through energy savings. ”
produce certified compost faster
Phoenix is allied to the Covenant of
than other composting methods,”
Mayors, the world’s largest movement
he reveals. “In partnership with the
for local climate and energy actions,
City’s Compost Facility operator,
which has over 9,000 cities in partner-
WeCare Denali, we’re processing
ship worldwide to meet the commit-
nearly 55,000 tons of inbound organic
ments of the Paris Agreement, chiefly
waste to compost which is either sold
a 30% reduction in carbon by 2025.
regionally, used at City parks and
Hartman takes inspiration from this
properties, or provided to City
global quest as Phoenix looks to
residents at special give away events .”
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Mark Hartman, Chief Sustainability Officer Mark Hartman is Phoenix’s Chief Sustainability Officer, charged to catalyze the long list of actions already underway to help Phoenix become a global leader in sustainability. Most recently, in April 2016, the council approved the 2050 Environmental Goals and now, Hartman is working with departments and the community to develop interim goals and complementary social and economic goals. Hartman formerly worked at the City of Vancouver for eight years in Sustainability leading their carbon-neutral buildings strategy and their green building code, as well as supporting Vancouver’s ambition to become the greenest city in the world by 2020. Mark holds an MBA from Heriot-Watt University and is a LEED accredited professional.
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Hartman believes the biggest challenge any city faces in pursuit of its sustainability goals is to break the cycle of the human propensity to do things the way they’ve always been done. “We are reluctant to embrace change, even when we’re presented with amazing opportunities,” he says. “We’re using more resources than is within the earth’s carrying capacity which is not sustainable long term. We need to start thinking about solutions to reduce waste in all of our systems, and inspire innovation to see
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what’s really possible.”
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CITY OF PHOENIX
Collaboration is key for the ongoing sustainable evolution of Phoenix. “We’re working with established partners to help us with technology and innovation,” confirms Hartman. “For our retrofits, we’re utilising the expertise of Ameresco, Honeywell, Trane, McKinsey and Noresco. They bring decades of experience to help us achieve our goals with systems that are easy to use and operate.” These efforts are part of the city’s 2020 goals to retrofit 185 City buildings 12
to make them 20% more efficient. “Ameresco is also running our 91st Avenue biogas facility as well as being the contractor that build it,” he adds. What sustainability trends has Hartman identified globally, and across the US, that can support Phoenix with its 2050 goals? “I’m excited about the potential to purchase renewable energy,” he observes. “We’re in a regulated environment, so it needs to be in partnership with our utilities. We’re looking at options like virtual power purchase agreements and ways you can procure energy from renewable sources that are equivalent to, or less than, current AUGUST 2019
utility pricing. It is possible to save money when you buy renewable energy.” Allied to this, Hartman is keen to make these opportunities available through community solar projects by partnering with a utility to implement solar and help reduce electricity costs in lower-income areas. “We also hope to partner with Clearway Energy to provide clean electricity to the district cooling system to offer carbon-neutral cooling to downtown buildings.” Hartman believes that, from a carbon pollution point of view, there are huge opportunities to apply the same learnings from making buildings more energy-efficient to transportation. “There’s a real move towards electrification of transportation,” he notes. “Norway’s electric vehicle sales now make up more than 70% of the market and countries like China see electrifying cars and buses as the solution to pollution.” Elsewhere, the Street Department just completed an upgrade of its 95,000 street lights to LED. It may have cost $30mn but Hartman points out that it pays for itself out of the energy savings, with the net savings w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com
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exceeding $1.5mn per year over and above the debt service cost, while providing better quality and more reliable lighting. Another goal for Hartman is to see Phoenix move towards a circular economy: “What if all the products and packaging we purchase was 100% recyclable and everything went back to the suppliers, and then, they used them for reproduction?” He notes that the Public Works department is visionary as it was the first city in the U.S. to join the Ellen MacArthur CE-100 Network, an industry catalyst AUGUST 2019
for the circular economy. In partnership with the Arizona State University, the City launched the RISN Incubator to work with early stage ventures with a focus on waste diversion and improvements in processing or utilization of waste as a raw material for new products or energy. As of 1 May 2019, 13 new businesses have generated $4.75M in revenue, raised $3.44M in capital, created 57 jobs, launched 13 products, filed 3 patents, and provided 43 internships. “We’re
“ We’re looking at options like virtual power purchase agreements and ways you can actually build and contract to get energy from a solar plant that’s equivalent to, or less than, current pricing” — Mark Hartman, CSO, City of Phoenix 15
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CITY OF PHOENIX
20 50 GOALS • Make walking, cycling and transit commonly used in every Phoenix neighbourhood • Create zero waste through participation in the circular economy • Maintain a clean and reliable 100-year supply of water
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• Reduce community carbon emissions by 80-90% • All residents to live within a five-minute walk of a park or open space • Achieve a level of air quality healthy for all residents and the natural environment • Maintain a sustainable, healthy, equitable, thriving local food system.
AUGUST 2019
working with the private sector providing feedstock and land for lease at attractive rates to turn palm fronds into animal feed and mixed plastics into fuel... It’s exciting to look at how we can turn waste into resources instead of dumping it in a huge hole in the ground. Here in Phoenix we could fill our baseball stadium seven times with the waste we collect from residential customers. What are the resources we could take out of that seven stadiums worth of waste? Whether that’s up-cycling furniture or using plastic bags to make decking— we need to be creative. Meanwhile, the trucks that pick up that waste travel the equivalent of going to the moon and back 14 times. People say ‘it’s free to throw stuff away’, but it’s certainly is not free. Imagine the fuel needed to travel to the moon 14 times in a garbage truck. One opportunity to address this fuel use is underway for our landfill gas, whereby the methane will be captured and converted into cleaner burning natural gas to fuel our garbage trucks. This will ensure cleaner air and avoids mining natural gas by replacing it with methane produced in our landfill.” w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com
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CITY OF PHOENIX
PA R T N E R I N F O
Phoenix: supporting renewable energy and products through utilities
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“We’re working with Arizona Public Service (APS) and Salt River Project (SRP),” explains City of Phoenix CSO Mark Hartman. “SRP wants to add 1000MW of utility-scale solar over the next five years. The first 100MW they made available to their largest customers. The city will be able to purchase solar at 2.7 cents per kilowatt hour for 20 years, and then sell it on the market at prevailing rates, which today averages over 3 cents, which means a large credit on our bill. As both customers and
AUGUST 2019
utilities invest in projects like this, its producing clean energy while saving money.” Hartman hopes to see many more of these projects. Phoenix already boasts 32MW of solar on city land, more than any other US city, and aims to double that figure. “We’re planning to add solar to parking lots, rooftops and unused land,” he pledges. “We’re also looking to lease out landfill property to utilities and renewable energy developers as a means to provide clean energy.”
19 In the short term, the city is on track to
sustainability as articulated in the
meet its target of 40% waste diversion
City’s General Plan — community
by 2020. Meanwhile, Phoenix is
health and education, equity, civil and
working hard with energy service
human rights, and safe communities
companies (ESCOs) to reduce building energy use by 20% for next
— in order to become a truly sustainable desert city.
year and targeting 15% for renewable energy used city-wide from diversified sources. Ultimately, Hartman stresses the need to also prioritize economic and social sustainability. “Environmentally there’s much we can do to raise awareness and make positive change but those outcomes must be achieved alongside economic and social w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com
200 W. Washington Street Phoenix, AZ 85003 www.phoenix.gov