San Francisco gets smart with green technology
San Francisco is using advanced technology – and the strong arm of government – to turn the city into one of America's greenest.
By David Ewing Duncan
Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco
On Pier 96 on San Francisco Bay, a dirty, smelly leviathan of a machine roars and vibrates as it organizes 750 tons of refuse each day into neat cubes of plastic, paper, and metal.
It may look crude, but this three-story-high knot of conveyors, computers, bins, and gears is a central part of San Francisco's growing effort to use technology and ingenuity as the most innovative companies do: to cut costs, solve problems, and improve life for customers (or in this case, citizens).
Communities that embrace technology in this way are increasingly branding themselves "smart cities" — a fancy marketing term describing a place that strives for efficiencies in mobility, construction, energy, and transportation, usually with the help of the latest digital or green technology.
Stockholm uses sensors, software, and computer networks to monitor traffic during peak periods. Shanghai boasts the world's first low-pollution magnetic railway that transports passengers at more than 100 mph. Massachusetts plans to install 300 wind turbines in its towns and cities. More
