SustainLane 2006 US City Sustainability Ranking

Detroit: Opportunities for Change

The automotive industry has pervaded Detroit life for more than 50 years. When the Big Three automakers-Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler-have experienced good times, so have the people of Detroit. Since 1998, however, Chrysler has been owned by German automaker Daimler-Benz, and Ford and General Motors have struggled to compete with Japanese carmakers.

Meanwhile, Detroit is losing population to outlying areas and other states. It lost about 50,000 of its citizens between 2000 and 2004, after shedding about half of its population from 1950 to 2000. Detroit is the poorest large city in the nation, with unemployment around 15 percent as of late 2005 and more than a third of its residents living below the poverty line. The city has an excellent opportunity to take advantage of emerging clean technologies, including alternative fuels, and regain its prominence as a manufacturing heavyweight.

If Detroit could harness its old-school transportation supply and labor base with alternative-fuel technologies and products, it would possess a ready-made migration path into the future. The city has no shortage of brilliant engineers, marketers, and mechanics to draw upon.

The US automotive industry has been slow to embrace change, instead lobbying against raising the nation's fuel efficiency standards. Large vehicles with high-powered engines have ruled the day in Detroit, but with higher gas prices, they don't appear to have a bright future. By investing in renewable energy, alternative fuel, local food, and green building, Detroit stands to improve the lives of its residents-and keep more of them in town.