Philadelphians purchase almost 600 million kilowatt-hours (kwH) of renewable energy each year, the equivalent, according to a City press release, of removing 80,000 passenger cars from the road.

As such, Philly has been designated a Green Power by the EPA. It is the largest city in the country to receive said designation which requires at least 3% of the city’s energy use be generated from renewable sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas and low-impact hydropower.

Green Powers across the US

In 2006, Philadelphia joined the EPA’s Green Power Partnership. From that partnership a number of initiatives (many of which we’ve covered) developed over the years. They include Green2015, in which the City pledged to generate 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2015, which exists under the umbrella of the Greenworks program, Green City, Clean Waters and more.…

To reduce water impairments caused by stormwater runoff, the EPA developed the Clean Water Act: Stormwater Strategy Summary of 2008 – 2010.

To comply with these regulations, the Philadelphia Water Department has drafted Green City, Clean Waters. It’s a 25-year plan with a goal aimed at reducing the amount of pollutants in our combined sewer system caused by combined sewer overflows by 85%, and to capture the first one-inch of stormwater runoff. Combined water systems are sewers designed to collect rainwater runoff, sewage and industrial water in the same pipe. Sixty percent of Philly’s 3,000 miles of sewers are constructed in this manner.

“Dilution was the solution,” said PWD spokesperson Joanne Dahme about meeting the standards presented in said act.

The program will be implemented through various types of projects across the city. The projects are engineered to capture rainwater, at residents’ homes perhaps via…

Ideas about how to green Philadelphia schoolyards, more specifically, the Henry C. Lea School at 4700 Locust St. in West Philly, were abound this month at Transforming Urban Schoolyards, a design charrette hosted at the Center for Architecture in Center City on May 10th.

Lea school

Concepts focused around redesigning the schoolyard to serve as a front entrance, perhaps on Spruce Street, and moving dumpsters to a less visible area, according to Linda Dottor, program manager at the Community Design Collaborative (CDC), the group that hosted the meeting in collaboration with the Philadelphia Water Department, Environmental Protection Agency and the American Institute of Architects.

Lea schoolyard

Vision of the future?

Teams of designers, students, parents, teachers and educational advocates met for an intensive six-hour day of design and discourse about redesigning…