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Arizona, the Godzilla of Global Sustainability?

What Silicon Valley is to hi-tech, Austin is to music, and Hollywood is to movies, Phoenix can and should be to the global sustainability industry. It’s ours to win or lose right now.

I just read the sustainability manifesto, “The Trillion Dollar Challenge,” by Derrick Mains, CEO of Green Nurture, and talked through it with him yesterday over lunch. It makes way too much sense to dismiss. The growing three trillion dollar sustainability industry is ripe for the taking, and Arizona is perfectly positioned to become the international epicenter.

From our unique climate to corporate innovation to community “can do” spirit, we have all of the elements and assets to become a sustainability juggernaut.

Arizona’s spectacular Sonoran desert is one of the most inhospitable biomes in the world, and yet humanity has thrived here for centuries through our innovative use of technology and resources. It’s the ideal environment to perfect new methods of water recycling and conservation, solar power, heating and cooling technologies, nuclear and alternative energies, eco-driving and transportation, sustainability-focused academia, sustainable health care, and proving of materials under extreme environmental forces.

When we talk about sustainability, we’re not yammering about being “Green.” We’re focused on the technologies, operational efficiencies, innovative use and reuse of resources, healthier lifestyles, advancing social causes; all of the elements that make up sustainable, profitable businesses, communities, economies, families and lifestyles. Protecting and nurturing our planet is simply and unequivocally the ingenious bi-product of a sustainable mission.

That’s why I’m so squarely on board with the growing number of Arizona entrepreneurs who want to create something bigger than themselves. We are marshaling a movement of sustainability that leverages our abundant natural business and environmental assets to make a real difference in this world. Our very actions will demonstrate the caring ambitions of the people, products, companies and causes that are making our state, the world, and the planet a better place.

We, as the business backbone of Arizona, who lead with thoughtful action, are the ones in the crosshairs. It is our responsibility, our duty. If we don’t do it, it won’t get done.

Our mission isn’t to be the 800-pound gorilla. We’re thinking bigger. We will become the global Godzilla of sustainability.

Audacious? You bet. All sustainable movements that dare to accomplish great things usually are.

To learn more, visit SustainAZility.com wiki. We’re in our infancy, but already sprinting.

Download the Trillion Dollar Challenge here.