Is Florence a Sustainable City?

Our tour of Florence was phenomenal, overwhelming in all the best ways. The architecture was stunning, the differences were like day and night in comparing the contrasts between Florence and the U.S. Overall I felt that Florence is a relatively sustainable city. Particularly things that stuck out to me is the abundance of sustainability seen in their food industry and agriculture. Florence supplies much of their food supply from local sources, especially when it comes to fruits and vegetables, and they are very sustainable in their farming. In addition another thing that stuck out to me is how they prioritize waste management with recycling and proper trash disposal. Ever so often you would see large recycling bins (usually four in a row) that you separate different types of recycling.

I believe there are a few things that our cities (Boone and Florence) could learn from each other. While Boone continues to try to utilize more local sources I believe if they could continue to push for sustainable agriculture and more utilization of local food sources that we could continue to see sustainability grow in Boone, and the recycling and waste management techniques of Florence I believe would be highly beneficial for Boone. I believe people here care about climate change and it is evident in the streets. Although they are maintained frequently we barely seen any trash on the streets here, Boone is relatively clean but compared to Florence our waste management could be better maintained.

-- N.M.