By Aaron Rop | The Republic | azcentral.com
From the street, it looks no different than hundreds of other Valley neighborhoods: rows of stucco homes with tile roofs and desert landscaping.
But what separates Ahwatukee’s 85045 ZIP code is that it has the largest carbon footprint in Arizona, according to a study by Cool Climate Network at the University of California, Berkeley.
Christopher Jones, lead researcher of Cool Climate Network, calculated the carbon footprint of all U.S. ZIP codes over a four-year period with the help of graduate students and Daniel Kammen. Their research found that the average household in 85045 produced 74 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, 25.5 metric tons more than the average U.S. household.
