Economic Architecture The Podcast

When a structural innovator can see both the forest and the trees, the possibilities are limitless. For Elvy Barton and her team at the Salt River Project, breaking the norms of a conventional water utility provider meant thinking about the needs across contexts, agencies, and individuals. Looking at the increased risk of wildfires and relative impact on drinking water through a more holistic lens, Barton and the Salt River Project found new ways to use the market to help lower the long-term cost of watershed preservation.

In this week’s episode of Economic Architecture, host Stuart Yasgur sits down with Elvy Barton of the Salt River Project to talk about the surprising impact of forest health on water accessibility, what it takes to preserve a large city’s water access, and the potential to expand interdisciplinary work among governments, agencies, and nonprofits to preserve access to essential resources like water.