By Jim Hunt
In 2009, my good friend, Mike Conduff and published a book on green awareness in cities and towns across the country. We wanted it to be a starting point for cities to start a discussion on how new technologies and innovations were going to remake cities and hopefully, save money in the process. The book was titled “Bottom Line Green-How America’s Cities are Saving the Planet (and Money Too!)” and we were invited to dozens of cities to talk about the book and facilitate discussions on adopting these new strategies. The challenge in writing a book on technology in 2009, is that the advances were moving at such a rapid pace, and they became old news before the ink was dry on the pages.
One of the most popular new innovations was energy efficient streetlighting and it represented some of the biggest savings available to cities and towns. It is estimated that there are over 35 million streetlights in the United States and switching to LED lighting could reduce energy costs by over 80%. This meant that a city could invest in new streetlights and the savings would pay for the cost of the lights in less than five years. We conducted workshops in several states and brought together the lighting department directors and many of them began the transformation to energy efficient lighting.
This past week, Mike Conduff and I had the opportunity to speak with Trent Prall, the Public Works Director of Grand Junction, Colorado, and it brought back memories of our work on green awareness, many years ago. Grand Junction is currently looking at converting their 8,000 streetlights to an energy efficient LED. Director Prall also related some interesting things that have come about because of technological developments in his city. Grand Junction installed cameras on the traffic signals, and they have changed the way, accidents are investigated in the city. He told us that the police investigations have gone from days of investigation to mere minutes, after the camera footage is reviewed. He is looking at increasing the number of cameras, by installing them on some of the new streetlights. They are also looking at other technology that can be installed on the lights, like wireless 5g and license plate readers.
We also learned that Grand Junction is now powering their water and sewer plants with solar energy and using methane from the wastewater treatment facility to fuel city vehicles. These and other initiatives are paying for themselves through energy savings and the city has recently hired its first sustainability director to find new opportunities to explore.
Our visit with Director Prall, reinforced our thoughts from back in 2009, that green awareness is one of the best things a city can do to prepare for the future. As cities like Grand Junction, adopt these strategies, their citizens benefit, and the planet becomes a little greener. An Amazing future!
