In Philadelphia there are a string of innovative programs designed to kickstart development and the local economy. There’s the EnergyWorks program, which provides loans for energy efficient residential and commercial projects. There’s sustainability and green efforts like Green2015, planting one million trees and transforming school blacktops intro greenspace. To help secure additional funding for it all, there is also the Mayors’ Office of Grants, launched last year to attract grant money.

A greened Lea schoolyard

StartUp PHL, launched last October, is one more of those innovative programs. In March, Mayor Nutter announced that First Round Capital, one of the most active investment firms in the country, will manage the $6M StartUp PHL seed fund. The result of a partnership between the Department of Commerce and the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, its goals…

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.…

In style, black will always be black. But around town, green is the new black at ten city schools and rec centers where blacktop will be transformed into new green space as part of a multi-city-agency collaborative initiative announced this month. It means a creative approach to creating needed accessible public green space.

Born of out of the mayor’s Green2015 Action Plan to create 500 acres of green space in the city by 2015, members from various city agencies celebrated the news with an event this month at the William Dick Elementary Schoolyard at 25th and Diamond Streets in North Philly.

Great mural

The budget for this program is about $9M, according to Patrick Morgan, chief of staff for the Parks and Recreation Department. Last year, partners from the Mural Arts Program, Water Department, Parks and Rec and The Trust…