What’s the difference between San José and Detroit? San José has better weather, prettier scenery and its economy is about fifty years younger. In other words, unless the city that sits at the heart of Silicon Valley manages to build new foundations for its economy on fresh, emerging industries, it could follow Detroit into presiding over a twenty-first century equivalent of our twentieth-century Rust Belt. Some of these new foundations are already under construction at San José’s so-called Green Vision program, a partnership between the city, its business community and, surprisingly, its environmentalists. Whether or not the alliance manages to achieve its audacious goal of simultaneously helping create 25,000 jobs in new, sustainable industries while cutting the area’s per-capita environmental footprint in half, the group’s coordinated efforts have already helped San José start to move slowly away from its heavy reliance on silicon and software.
Green Vision takes a unique approach to this transformation by creating a environment where the business community, the city, and its citizens can work together in building a sustainable future. Part of its
ten-point plan seeks to apply the culture of innovation that fueled the Valley’s electronics industry to nurture biotech, renewable energy, water systems and other clean-tech industries. While they do provide some direct funding to clean-tech researchers and startups, most of the aid Green Vision provides is in its coordination of private initiatives. This includes giving program participants access to venture funding, a community of skilled workers and entrepreneurs, and the opportunity to make connections with local research institutions such as Stanford and San José State Universities. Green Vision also gives participants access to technology incubators like San José’s Environmental Business Cluster and the San José BioCenter.
The city is putting its money where its mouth is by making large investments in its own infrastructure: both to improve its own operating efficiency and to provide residents with eco-friendly municipal services. This includes initiatives that will eventually allow San José to recycle, or re-use, 100% of its
municipal waste, and re-use all of its
wastewater. Other programs are underway that will build or retrofit 50 million square feet of
green buildings, convert the city’s streetlights to LEDs, and install some of the State’s first public charging stations for electric vehicles.
Meanwhile, San José is working towards helping its citizens
cut their per-capita energy use by 50%. This involves a combination of smart growth ordinances, eco-aware building codes, improved public transportation, and the construction of 100 miles of interconnected trails that will allow residents to walk or bike to many places instead of using a car.
By coordinating public and private initiatives and recognizing the subtle but real connections between environmental quality and long-term prosperity, San José may have created a blueprint for its own evolution into one of the most eco-friendly cities in the world. Will it be completely successful? Its most likely Green Vision will suffer from its own share of the inefficiencies, boondoggles, and political parasitics that plague most large municipal initiatives. But even the difficulties that the Green Vision program encounters will provide new information that could be invaluable to other cities attempting to re-invent their economies around sustainable principles.
To learn more about San José’s Green Vision visit their
home page.
Comments? Questions? Ideas for sustainable businesses? Write me at
lhg at en-genius dot net or post your comments on our blog.
