It Ain’t Easy Being Green – But It’s Worth It

I am happy to see an article in today’s Salt Lake Tribune about the efforts Park City takes to be a “green” city.

Along with the practice of promoting more “green” development, inclusive of green building practices, preservation of open space, purchasing more renewable energy and promoting more walkable communities, PC has a law that makes it a crime for motorists to park their cars and leave them idling.

Kudos to Park City for this law. I know in some European cities it is against the law to leave your car idling at red stoplights.

While cities such as Park City are making strides in developing more environmentally sound practices, there reamins challenges to implementation. The biggest challenge is the “buy-in” by residents. From the Trib article:

Park City Transit is spectacularly successful – the 27-bus fleet will carry almost 2 million riders this year – and yet the town still faces messy traffic snarls and resulting air pollution.
And while the area boasts more than 300 miles of hiking and biking trails, many parts of Park City, as well as the suburbs stretching to Kimball Junction, remain frighteningly less than pedestrian friendly.
Even simple environmental initiatives can seem difficult. Summit County’s curbside recycling is free, but fewer than half of Park City residents use it.
Those and other realizations have led Park City leaders to adopt wide-ranging environmental goals. Their notion: Being green brings greenbacks – from eco-conscious tourists to business investors.

The article’s author points out that residents will be more likely to follow “green” standards and practices if they face having to pay for it.

Unfortunately that’s the way things are headed with the monumental damage that is being done to our planet with population increases, and demands on the resources that are extracted for use by humans.

Park City is doing a great thing and is headed in the right direction. When citizens decide that the planet’s survival is dependent on conservation and more simple living, future generations will benefit. Until then the challenge remains to convince citizens of the benefits and, ultimately, they will end up engaging in green practices due potentially having to pay to conserve.