GreenPlan Philadelphia -- A planning project to help provide a long-term, sustainable road map for using, acquiring, developing, funding, and managing open space in the city’s neighborhoods.
Philadelphia Sustainability Awards -- The awards celebrate Greater Philadelphia's environmental innovation, economic development and vibrant communities.
Pennsylvania Buy Fresh Buy Local-- Organization creates food guides, coordinate tasting events, organize farmers' markets and sponsor farm tours, among other activities.
PhillyCarShare --A non-profit organization that provides members with access to a fleet of vehicles on an hourly basis.
Philadelphia Green: The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society -- A not-for-profit membership organization that provides events, activities and publications for novice gardeners, experienced horticulturists, and flower lovers of all ages.
The Department of Energy announced $10 million has been awarded to 16 cities for 40 new Solar America Cities Special Projects. The funds, made through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will enable the cities to increase solar energy use in their communities through innovative programs and policies that the government believes can be replicated across the nation.
The cities chosen for these awards came from the group of 25 large U.S. cities that are part of the DOE’s Solar America Cities program, which recognizes the participating cities as partners highly committed to solar technology adoption at the local level. Those cities already have been given millions of dollars in funds and technical assistance to accelerate solar adoption.
Jen McKenna’s family attended Summer Streets for the first time this year: “It might take some getting used to but once people do I think everyone will learn to enjoy it.” (Photo: Sommer Saadi)
You’ve only got one weekend left to witness the near impossible: a car-free street in New York City.
Summer Streets is back for its second year and is once again offering New Yorkers three weekends in August to play, walk, bike and breathe on a nearly seven-mile stretch of city streets void of any motorized distractions.
Bitches on Bikes and the Wind Power Pedalers Climate Ride Team will hold a benefit event at New York City hot spot The Eldridge on Thursday from 9-11 p.m., featuring a silent auction of art, curated by Gitana Rosa Gallery.
Climate Ride is a 300-mile bicycle ride from New York City to Washington, D.C. to raise money to address climate change and promote renewable energy. The silent auction curated by Gitana Rosa Gallery will feature artists including Tom Bob, Tom Billings, Andrés García-Peña, Michael Krynski, Graham T. Slick, Jodi Taylor, Brett Wintle and Suzy Q.
Fashion Institute of Technology student Jessica Velasquez can soon cycle in style, her own style, after winning a contest to design a jacket, poncho and bag suitable for fashion-conscious bike commuters.
Her winning designs for the “Bike in Style” contest were unveiled this week as the city launched its Summer Streets program, which promotes biking and walking.
This June may have given New Yorkers an unseasonably rainy stretch crummy enough to keep them inside whenever possible, but it has also delivered a novel way to exploit the rare sunny day: A new park built upon industrial ruins, sustained by both citizens and government, and (to judge from its opening week) enjoyed by all.
Known as The High Line, the park sits upon a long stretch of elevated train track running down the west side of the city’s lower end. The nearly 80 year-old tracks once carried freight through industrial areas, running straight through some warehouses to allow for easy loading and unloading of goods.
Seedco announced today it has received a $500,000 grant from the Starr International Foundation in Switzerland to launch an effort to help New York City’s low-income workers train for and connect to jobs in the emerging building energy retrofit industry.
An organization focused on initiatives that help low-income people, Seedco also will create opportunities for small businesses to enter and expand into the energy retrofit field. In the coming years, the industry is expected to expand as a result of government-regulated efficiency mandates and demand for energy efficiency buildings.
After a trial run than began last year, TapIt Water, a water bottle refilling service, is officially launching in New York City.
TapIt engages a network of cafes and eateries across New York City that volunteer as partners to provide clean drinking water to those who carry in their own reusable bottle. TapIt users can find partner locations at TapitWater.com and iPhone users can download a locator application from the App Store. The web site also has a map locating water fountains around the city.
The best teachers inspire. Their grasp and excitement of a subject is contagious. Talking to Bertha Vazquez, Susan Vincent and Patrick Curley, you can’t come away without absorbing at least a sliver of their passion for the environment.
This month the National Environmental Education Foundation recognized Vazquez, Vincent and Curley for their innovative approaches to environmental education. Bertha Vazquez, a middle school teacher at a magnet school in Coral Gables, Fla., won the Richard C. Bartlett Education Award, named after the chairman of the Nature Conservancy of Texas. Patrick Curley, a middle and high-school teacher who works with at-risk students in Jacksonville, NC, and Susan Vincent, an earth and marine science teacher in East Harlem, NY, won certificates of merit.
“Kids have always related to the environment,” says Vazquez, who teaches at George Washington Carver Middle School in the Miami-Dade school system. “Teachers need to look for real-life connections that kids can relate to.”
Earth Day is here. In my burg, the streets were filled with people walking and biking to school this morning. Odd thing happened. Many of the parents lingered, talking to each other. You couldn’t have herded them off the sidewalks. So much for suburban isolation. Why don’t we do it more often?
But the big Earth Day event today is in New York City this morning, where Denis Hayes, one of the two U.S. Earth Day founders, and Kathleen Rodgers, president of the Earth Day Network, are appearing in Times Square to kick off a call to action for the coming year. They’re calling it the “Green Generation” campaign, an effort to enlarge the movement for a fossil-fuel free future and more green jobs. They’re installing a new rotating “Earth Ball” in Times Square as a symbol of the drive, which culminates on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in 2010.
So, ummm, let’s not drop the ball on this one. Okay?
Do not underestimate the excitement of Earth Day. Trust us. There is a lot to look forward to this year – the Green Apple Festival and Earth Day Network are making sure of it.
The two organizations have teamed up to put together the largest Earth Day festival in America. The event will take place April 17 to 19 (the weekend before the official Earth Day on April 22) and features simultaneous service events in ten major cities across the nation including New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.
Nalgene’s least wasteful city study, which was produced from a survey of 3,750 Americans in the top 25 largest cities that sought to probe their “mindset”, asking them about their green habits like whether they used public transportation and reusable grocery bags or composted and reused containers — resulted in San Francisco taking top honors as the most mindfully-least-wastefully green city:
