 Hot Topics/Cool Solutions
Cool & Sustainable Communities Education Program
What is "Hot Topics/Cool Solutions"?
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In 1998 Tucson Clean & Beautiful created the Hot Topics/Cool Solutions program - a series of timely workshops, forums and expositions - to help educate residents along with representatives of industry and local government about the implementation of policies and practices related to sustainable and environmentally friendly building, maintenance and operations in the context of the current state of our local & global environment.
Specific topics for Hot Topics/Cool Solutions events have included global warming/greenhouse gases, urban heat island effects, green & sustainable building, solar & alternative energy, energy efficiency, cool and permeable pavements, cool and green roofs, tree and plant resources as infrastructure, sustainable lifestyles, and growth & livability. The program is implemented in partnership with the City of Tucson and Pima County along with private industry and many other community-based organizations.
Hot Topics/Cool Solutions grew from two previous initiatives led by Tucson Clean & Beautiful:
- Trees for Tucson (1989), a program to encourage planting of desert-adapted shade trees
- Tucson Cool Communities (1992), a model demonstration program implemented toward the goal of creating positive, measurable change in urban environmental conditions, and reduction in energy consumption.
Why should we be concerned about how cool and sustainable our Tucson area is (and can be)?
As rapidly-growing communities like the Tucson area continue to expand, natural & more rural landscapes that help to keep the community cool are replaced with pavement and buildings that absorb and retain heat, resulting in localized temperature increases called the Urban Heat Island. Increased local temperatures, in turn, increase air pollution, electricity costs, and harm plant, animal and even human health. Increased vehicle travel and electrical power usage also continue to add more Carbon Dioxide to our atmosphere, resulting in global warming and climate change, in addition to our local urban heat island. At the same time, many processes that are an integral part of supporting human and natural environments are lost or damaged as populations increase and communities develop. Demand for water, energy and other natural resources, along with quantities of pollution and waste, generally also increase as communities expand.
Working together as a community and on many different fronts, we can maximize efficiency, mitigate the urban heat island effect, mitigate Carbon Dioxide emissions to reduce global warming & climate change, and build sustainable resource practices. This is possible both in improving and redeveloping existing developed areas (where the most mitigation is needed) and in upcoming development & future planning. All of these provide unique opportunities & challenges requiring investments of time, money, and expertise. Many times, the greatest challenge is weighing the direct, measurable costs of environmental preservation, improvement and maintenance alongside the long term benefits both to the environment and greater community, which can be even more important but equally difficult to calculate and comprehend. Working and planning toward the goal of a cooler and more sustainable community ensures favorable impacts - short and long term - not only on the economic but also environmental and social well-being of the Tucson-Pima County metropolitan area!
What is being done to make the Tucson area a cleaner, cooler and more sustainable community?
One of the most effective ways to reduce the urban heat island effect is to preserve and restore landscape areas that mimic the natural environment - particularly adding shade trees! Toward this goal, Tucson Clean & Beautiful began the Trees for Tucson shade tree program in 1989 to promote widespread planting of desert-adapted, fast-growing shade trees at homes, along streets, and in community common areas. While trees are great at beautifying, shading and cooling our homes, they also provide many other benefits such as increased water infiltration and reduced stormwater runoff, trap pollutants to improve water and air quality, uptake of Carbon Dioxide, create and restore wildlife habitat, buffer noise, stabilize soil and prevent erosion, create wildlife habitat, and beautify the community.
In additional to the Hot Topics/Cool Solutions and Trees for Tucson programs, other Tucson Clean & Beautiful initiatives help to create a cooler, cleaner, more sustainable community. These programs include volunteer litter cleanup, recycling & waste reduction, and special commemorative & memorial park improvement efforts. Tucson Clean & Beautiful is also involved in development of policy through membership on committees and through collaborative efforts with many levels of government, local businesses & industry, and other nonprofit & grassroots organizations.
At the same time, many other entities within the Tucson-Pima County metropolitan area also provide products, services & educational programs that complement Tucson Clean & Beautiful efforts and contribute toward the goal of a cleaner, cooler and more sustainable community! For more information, visit the community & environment resource links for Alternative Energy, Reused, Recycled & Environment Friendly Building Materials, and Tucson area Environmental Resource Groups.
Additional Tucson area collaborations have taken place with groups locally, from across the country and around the world, including:
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