On Thursday night, Philadelphia received the third annual Siemens Sustainable Community Award in the large-community category, edging out more modern cities like Dallas and Atlanta. Joining Philly at the podium were Grand Rapids, Mich., and Newton, Iowa, who took the top prize for midsize and small communities, respectively. Philadelphia Director of Sustainability Katherine Gajewski believes, when it comes to this award, it was all in the plan.
They were really enthusiastic that we put out Greenworks, our sustainability program; that we didnt just set high-level goals, we also gave a roadmap for how we were going to implement the plan, Gajewski says. We identified 150 separate initiatives that we were making progress toward and even in the first year, we are moving very aggressively toward those goals.
The Greenworks plan was more than just rooftop gardens and LED traffic lights. It calls for participation from companies big and small as well as neighborhood participation and good balance between business and idealism. One example is the recent partnership between the citys single-stream recycling program and local business RecycleBank. This partnership led to an incentive program that gives coupons for recycling. Philadelphia now boasts the largest incentive-based recycling program in the U.S.
This award is the first of many gold stars the Office of Sustainability hopes to receive as they seek to expand sustainability beyond urban technology and start reforming the city economy in a more sustainable way.
We have capital coming in that will allow us to give more loans out to sustainable business owners and we are working on a new program for homeowners, says Gajewski. We are really starting to think about the things that we can do here that drive that market transformation that will become critical if we are talking about building up a green economy here in Philadelphia.
Source: Katherine Gajewski, Office of Sustainability
Writer: John Steele