SustainLane 2006 US City Sustainability Ranking

Atlanta: Inland Port Takes Baby Steps

Atlanta gets high marks for green building-indeed, it's a national showcase for sustainable architecture-but in most other areas it appears burdened with industrial consequences.

Atlanta's airport is the busiest in the world. Founded as a rail terminus-its first name was Terminus-the city has always been important to transit and industry. When Union forces marched on Atlanta in 1864, they were attacking the logistics hub of the Confederate Army. Today, Atlanta is a foreign trade zone-imports can speed directly from the coast to US Customs in Atlanta. More freight than ever converges on the rail center of the South, where goods are sorted, re-sorted, and sent along to oceans and skies beyond.

Thanks in part to the 1996 Olympic Games, Atlanta's commercial identity has prospered along with its importance as a waypoint in the global economy. People continue to move here in droves: Atlanta metro has the fastest-growing sprawl in the nation.

The city's excellence in green building suggests a willingness to confront long-term environmental issues, but the modest motto of Atlanta's Energy Conservation Program, "A step towards sustainability," is all too accurate. Atlanta would benefit by planning more boldly to translate its current economic dynamism into a durable, vital metropolitan center-one that not only thrives on the worldwide circulation of commodities, but also addresses the vulnerabilities caused by runaway sprawl.