Wanderlust World Wanderlust World When Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter was inaugurated in January of 2008, he set a lofty goal of making Philadelphia the number one green city in America. To that end, he created the Mayor's Office of Sustainability and began the ambitious undertaking of transforming gritty Philly to a bastion of ecological preservation. A year later, Greenworks Philadelphia was released, and has since made great strides in improving the overall "greenness" of the city and helping to preserve the ecosystem.
Safe, clean renewable solar energy is an obvious choice for any green initiative, and Philadelphia's is no exception. Philly's Solar City Partnership is a joint effort between the U.S. Department of Energy and the city that is working to develop its own solar energy initiative with the eventual goal of displacing fossil fuel energy while remaining cost-effective. To that end, the partnership has developed the largest 3-MW solar photovoltaic system east of the Mississippi River in nearby Bucks County.
Eating local means supporting farmers in your community, saving on transport costs and reducing energy output required to ship foods great distances. Greenworks Philadelphia's goal is to bring local food within 10 minutes of 75 percent of Philadelphia residents. Increased availability of locally sourced food will in turn create more demand for locally grown food, help to support food entrepreneurs and combat hunger. Greenworks is also working to connect local families with public garden space they can use to grow their own food each year.
The dearth of trees in many Philadelphia neighborhoods doesn't just make them look gritty, it also means less shade and higher temperatures, higher air pollution and decreased property values. GreenPlan aims to rectify this situation by planting 300,000 trees by 2015, increasing Philadelphia's average "tree canopy" (percentage of area shaded by trees) to 30 percent in every neighborhood by 2025. Numerous partners will be working with the city to help achieve this lofty goal.
Reducing a building's energy use doesn't just decrease the costs associated with keeping that building, it also means less fossil fuel burned and less output of environmental pollutants. To help both businesses and homeowners reduce their building's energy use, EnergyWorks offers energy assessments and low-interest loans to help pay for any suggested upgrades.
If you're going to build it, build it green; so says the city of Philadelphia. To that end, two laws were passed to ensure that building practices would become more environmentally friendly. The first law requires all new construction and major renovations of city government buildings to meet LEED Silver Certification standards, and the second law requires that all new construction within the city have "cool roofs" (highly reflective roofs) that meet or exceed Energy Star cool roof standards.