Sustainability : Innovation + Job News

When Cindy Gruenwald started Doylestown's Creating Community magazine 17 years ago, the term "going green" hadn't yet  taken over the American lexicon and Al Gore was famous for simply being the Vice President. Creating Community was launched with a very specific community in mind; those interested in healthy living, sustainability and personal fitness. All these years later, the community is stronger than ever, leading Gruenwald to take her green guidance to the next level. Her new dating website, ANaturalAffinity.com, matches singles with similar interests in leading a healthier, more active and more environmentally friendly lifestyle.

"All of my single friends, no matter how crunchy granola they may be, were doing online dating because they found it hard to meet other single people" says Gruenwald. "And then, in doing online dating, they go on Match.com and there aren't enough like-minded people. Or they go on GreenSingles.com but there are not many people in their area. People who are interested in this range of things, it is generally not a casual interest like loving German Shepherds. These are really cornerstones of someone's lifestyle."

For fans of a more active lifestyle, there are groups and events calendars so dates are built right into the social fabric. The site even offers a list of conversational topics and access to message boards so you can chat before you date. Gruenwald announced the site this week with the hopes of going live January 1. In the meantime, Creating Community is looking to hire two staffers to help manage the site going forward, so that all the features work as they should.

"People want to connect with other people in their area," says Gruenwald. "The range of topics is the thing, really, the range of interests we have put together really drives people."

Source: Cindy Gruenwald, ANaturalAffinity.com
Writer: John Steele

The word 'geothermal' comes from the Greek term for "heat from the earth." But digging into the earth can be a challenge when it is covered by the concrete jungle of an American city. So Nova Thermal Energy created a geothermal energy system that connects to the sewer infrastructure, using these underground pipes as a geothermal loop. After commercializing in China, Nova Thermal brings a traditionally rural technology to large, urban buildings here in the U.S., and they are starting with the Philadelphia Water Department.

Earlier this month, Mayor Michael Nutter and the City of Philadelphia announced the Greenworks Pilot Energy Technology program that would allow three developing energy technology companies to install at buildings around the city to test the feasibility of different energy-saving measures. Nova Thermal Energy received $150,000 to bring urban geothermal to the Philadelphia Water Department headquarters at 1101 Market St. With this installation, Nova Thermal will monitor consumption, effectiveness and filtration to see if these technologies can be used city-wide to curb heating costs and reduce Philadelphia's carbon footprint.

"We have a project pipeline of about 15 projects in various stages of development throughout the Mid-Atlantic region but no one wants to be the first to demonstrate the technology," says Nova Thermal CEO Elinor Haider. "This will enable us to advance our commercial scale pipeline."

The Philadelphia Water Department has needed a new heating system for some time. This system provides a large-scale system that uses the heat from untreated sewage to heat large buildings, using filtration and a system of heat pumps. Nova Thermal Energy estimates that the 20,000 sq ft. PWD facility will save approximately 40 percent of the building's current heating costs when it is completed in January.

"By using wastewater for our heat pumps, the system is a fraction of the cost but a massive energy efficiency impact on buildings that couldn't use geothermal before," says Haider.

Source: Elinor Haider, Nova Thermal Energy
Writer: John Steele

So by now you're a recycling pro: Your carefully sorted blue bins are first on the curb, and your trash can is light. And it's doubly awesome that you're so passionate about it, but you know, you could be getting something for all this. That's part of the message from RecycleNOW Philadelphia, which announced on Monday a partnership with the City of Philadelphia and RecycleBank to help boost citywide recycling rates. The program is centered around RecycleBank's Philadelphia Recycling Rewards program, which incentivizes recycling by offering points for regular recycling that can be cashed in for discounts or freebies at participating local and national businesses.

More than 100,000 Philadelphia households are already signed up for the rewards program, but the new partnership has RecycleNOW enlisting and training city residents to be neighborhood recycling advocates, who will sign up their freinds, neighbors, family and co-workers to earn their own incentives.

"This partnership will help us reach even more residents and provide them with the motivation to start recycling or recycle even more and get rewarded for it," says Denise Diorio McVeigh, Philadelphia account manager of RecycleBank, in a statement released Monday on America Recycles Day. RecycleBank launched its successful pilot program in Philadelphia in 2005, when it tripled recycling rates in Chestnut Hill and quadrupled them in West Oak Lane.

RecycleNOW's first neighborhood recycling advocate training will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 23 at 6 p.m. at 1500 Walnut Street (Suite 205). For more information, contact Katie Edwards here. The Recycling Alliance of Philadelphia is led by Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture), the Clean Air Council, Clean Water Action and Niche Recycling.

Source: PennFuture
Writer: Joe Petrucci

Philadelphia Brewing Company's newest "Select Series" brew Harvest From The Hood is known as a wet-hop ale. When hop flowers are harvested, they are traditionally dried so that they can be shipped to breweries across the country. But with wet-hop ale, you get the hops into the boiler within 24 hours of the harvest to get the maximum flavor. PBC is located in Kensington, where there isn't a hops plant for 3,000 miles, but these beer barons weren't going to let a little thing like that stop them.

Through a partnership with the urban agriculturalists Greensgrow Farms, PBC brewers grew the hops on urban farm space both in their own courtyard and on Greensgrow's farmland, creating the world's freshest wet-hop ale and bringing a new brewing style to the table this harvest season.

"When you think about how things were marketed years ago, everybody bought something from their neighborhood," says PBC sales rep Tony Madjor. "Even with beer, especially in the Northeast, all the breweries were very regional and, in some cases, just in their own neighborhood."

Harvest From The Hood is the first beer in the PBC Select Series, a group of high-concept brews PBC hopes to offer seasonally while it works on its next great "session" beer.  On November 15, the company celebrates the release of Winter Wunder, a spiced ale containing plums, dates, cinnamon, allspice, clove, and a sprinkle of ginger. Mid-December will bring Shackamaximum, a chocolate imperial stout. And Kilty Pleasure, a Scottish ale, comes in January. These seasonal offerings will toy with local tastebuds, offering an endearing seasonal treat as well as sparking the creativity for PBC brewers.

"We are only approaching our third full year of brewing so we are looking at where the market is going but also looking at styles that we want to make," says Madjor. "We would like to keep this around though and have it come out every October.

Source: Tony Madjor, Philadelphia Brewing Company
Writer: John Steele

When Mayor Michael Nutter unveiled 500 Big Belly solar garbage compactors all over the city in April 2009, there was skepticism as to the effectiveness of this new technology. But when this test run was complete and the Philly Throws Green case study was released in June, city officials found the compactors would save over $1.5 million in waste collection man-hours per year. The city hopes its newest garbage-related investment in composting will yield the same results.

In an effort to conduct a real-world test of its effectiveness, the city of Philadelphia has granted $18,700 to Niche Recycling for one of its composting "Bio Bins." By trapping in natural gasses released from food waste using a sealed bin, a recirculating air system and wood chips, Bio Bins break down food waste so that fewer collections are needed.

"With food waste, you typically have three days before you start to get anaerobic conditions and smell," says Niche Recycling founder Maurice Sampson II. "With Bio Bins, you can handle this on-site. There is a tremendous savings to not have to collect every other day and, unlike a typical composting operation, we can use normal garbage trucks."

The grant comes as part of the Greenworks Pilot Energy Technology (G-PET) program, which is funded through the federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program. With the exposure of this project and the recent opening of the Wilmington Organic Recycling Center, Sampson hopes to offer a full composting service that will give him a competitive advantage over trash collectors.

"We are very proud to be selected for this grant that is about commercialization, so that we can test it and find out what the criteria are," says Sampson. "Composting is not something we typically think of in America but oh my goodness, it is going to make such a difference."

Source: Maurice Sampson II, Niche Recycling
Writer: John Steele

In Scotland two weeks ago, the Scottish Police Service agreed to European firm ITM Power's Hydrogen On-Site Trials, a test of hydrogen fuel cell technology and fueling stations. The trials, scheduled for early 2011, will also be conducted in England (Sheffield and Southampton). The trials are one of thousands of hydrogen-based projects going on across Europe. And Drexel University-spinoff company AlumiFuel Power--the company responsible for aluminum-powder capsules that, when delivered to water, create valuable hydrogen and steam--plans to be involved. This week, AlumiFuel announced the sale of $7.5 million in common stock of its majority-owned subsidiary, AlumiFuel Power International. The sale, officials say, will allow the company to expand internationally.

"This Memorandum of Understanding is the first step in our goal to broaden our reach outside of North America and provide access to capital for expansion of our product development and marketing activities," says Alumifuel CEO Henry Fong.

While much of the company's business currently focuses on lift-gas for weather balloons and flameless heaters, executives hope to expand the use of these cylinder capsules in back-up and auxiliary power for fuel cells and turbines. But they will have to act fast, as hydrogen is rapidly catching on in key worldwide markets.

"While we must still conduct further due diligence, we believe this can be accomplished in a relatively short time-frame for a deal of this nature," says Fong. "The creation of AlumiFuel International and this funding, if successfully completed, will allow us to expand our reach internationally and raise significant capital to fund our operations."

Source: Henry Fong, AlumiFuel Power
Writer: John Steele

When most guys play pool, they talk about girls, music, sports; but when Drexel University electrical engineering grad students Ryan Buchert and Dr. Michael Balog gathered to shoot stick in their basement in 2003, the conversation was a bit more complex. Just as a stick is used to strike one ball against another into the pocket, the pair posited, what if all our tools could be controlled wirelessly, for simpler device management?

Those late-night pool games became the vision for BuLogics, a green gadget firm allowing for wireless control of everything from lights to smoke detectors. This week, the Greenworks Pilot Energy Technology Program--the first pilot program for the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster--announced an award of $175,000 to help these energy-efficient electricians bring light controls and metering technology to the Navy Yard in South Philly and the Inn at Penn in University City.

"Energy costs keep going up and small businesses are suffering because of that," says BuLogics CEO Mirka Walczak. "Everyone is on the bandwagon of reducing parasitic power and we have a solution in place will offer better control and allow them to really keep an eye on that usage."

For these two commercial institutions, BuLogics starts with the Smart-Grid controller--"the glue that holds it all together" says Walczak--that allows all devices to run through the same command center and be monitored for energy consumption. This, along with metering power strips and wireless transponders, gives office and hotel managers the power to run a more efficient business.

"When you lock up the door for the last time, you can punch in a code that shuts off the power to all the devices and lock the doors and the thermostat gets set back," says Director of Operations Jennifer Doebler. " I think that automation piece that makes energy management so much simpler is what makes our technology a little more comprehensive and a little more desirable, especially in commercial applications like the Navy Yard."

Source: Mirka Walczak, Bulogics
Writer: John Steele


 

From a few tomato plants in a rooftop garden to acre-sized community farms, profitable plants are sprouting up all over Philadelphia. With the end of the harvest season upon us, Penn State University comes to the Enterprise Center in West Philly this week, pulling farmers out of the fields and into the classroom in the name of good agribusiness.

With open-enrollment extension course "Income Opportunities in Agriculture," students will learn successful business practices for urban farmers interested in taking their crops to market. How do you set prices? How do you market yourself? Who can you partner with to become more profitable? Enlisting professors from PSU's College of Agriculture, many with corporate farming backgrounds, this course will make sure you always have a plentiful harvest. 

"The people we are attracting are people following their passions and hopefully building it into something bigger," says Penn State extension director John Byrnes. "Philadelphia has some larger urban ag institutions--Greensgrow and the Weavers Way farm. These are places where people can hold down jobs and make a living. This is giving people the opportunity to learn about business and give them a shot at augmenting their income."

The course is part of a series of Penn State urban agriculture offerings delivered annually around the end of the market season. Penn State's agricultural extension program partners with local learning professionals to bring course offerings to people off campus as well. The College of Agriculture first presented "Exploring Your Small Farm Dream" for beginning farmers looking for an idea. "Income Opportunities in Agriculture" starts Tuesday, Nov. 9 from 6-8 pm at the Enterprise Center. Registration is $20 and can be taken care of here.

Source: John Byrnes, Penn State University
Writer: John Steele

Less than two months since $122 million was announced to create an Energy Innovation Hub at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, the project is already taking shape. United Kingdom-based Mark Group, a European home energy efficiency leader, was welcomed on Friday by Gov. Ed Rendell to its new home at the Navy Yard, where it will hire up to 320 workers over the next three years.

Mark Group was founded in 1974 and boasts of improving the energy efficiency of more than 2 million homes, installing more than 6,000 measures every week that help consumers save. The company is in growth mode, having recently established an Australian base of operations.

Led by a Penn State University-headed team, the Clean Energy campus at the Navy Yard is one of three regional clusters nationally that are designed to bring together leading researchers and the private sector to develop energy efficient building designs. Buildings accounty for nearly 40 percent of U.S. energy consumption.

"The creation of alternative energy sources is key to America's economic future," says Mark Group CEO Jeff Bartos. "We are excited to launch our business from Philadelphia and to deliver energy efficiency upgrades to homes throughout the nation."

As part of the move, Mark Group received a $3.28 million financing package from the Governor's Action Team. Bringing the company across the pond was truly a collaborative effort: The state Department of Community and Economic Development's international trade off, the City of Philadelphia, Select Greater Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. and the TeamPA Foundation were all credited.

Source: Jeff Bartos, Mark Group
Writer: Joe Petrucci

From mud thatch to clay tile, roofing materials are about as varied as the houses underneath them. But with a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, St. Joseph's University students will test the limits of green roofing materials, trying out everything from gravel to plastic-based fabric to recycled sneaker rubber. By building an expansive green roof on the deck of the University's Science Center, St. Joes associate dean of Natural Science, Math and Computer Science Mike McCann will monitor the drainage of four different green roof sections to see which performs best.

"A big goal with the green roof project is public dissemination," says McCann. "What we want to do is be able to tell anyone who is looking to do a green roof in this area of the country 'here is some performance data that might help guide your design.' "

This grant will also fund a study of switchgrass cultivation. Widely thought to be an excellent source of biofuels, switchgrass growth may be impacted by climate change. Through university study and field research at National Science Foundation Long Term Ecological Research site Konza Prairie, near Manhattan, Kan. students will examine the effects of changes in precipitation, temperature, and carbon dioxide on the growth of switchgrass to see if it may one day become a sustainable fuel source. McCann and the St. Joe's brass hope these projects will help formally establish their proposed Institute for Environmental Stewardship.

"We expect development communities to be very interested as well as people looking at global climate change impacts," says McCann. "But this grant is going to support undergraduate and graduate students engaged in these projects. We are not doing this to train switchgrass researchers. We are doing this to train sustainable researchers to do all sorts of jobs."

Source: Mike McCann, St. Joseph's University
Writer: John Steele

It's the curse of the middle child: your older sister's worn out jean jacket that went out of style two years before she bought it is now the only thing you have for the first day of school. Hand-me-downs can make your closet look like the wardrobe trailer for a John Hughes movie. But a new service from Penn's Wharton School of Business ensures that your kids won't suffer like you did.

It's called Drop Swop, a children's clothing trade-in service that allows parents to trade in their child's unwanted or outgrown clothes for points that can be put toward a growing online collection of gently used clothing cast-offs. A simple concept could have only come from experience and founder Marcus Hathaway says his inspiration came a little over a year ago after moving from California to attend Wharton.

"At that time, my son was growing, going through his clothes so we had piles of clothes that we just ended up storing in his room," says Hathaway. "We kept buying more clothes and storing clothes and he didn't even have a chance to wear most of the stuff."

Like the clothes that have become its specialty, rapid growth caused Drop Swop to outgrow its original location at the University of Pennsylvania. Today, parents can find Drop Swop bins at Turning Points for Children in Center City and at the Caring People Alliance at the West Philadelphia Community Center as well as Penn's Family Resource Center in University City. As the word spreads, Hathaway hopes to add more facilities and staff to fill them in the coming year.

"When we talked to our friends and members of our family, we recognized that ours was a shared experience," says Hathaway. "Drop Swop was a way to interact and help parents get the most out of their kids' clothes."

Source: Marcus Hathaway, Drop Swop
Writer: John Steele

When most people strap on a helmet and hit the road on a bike, they are probably not thinking about carbon tonnage or sustainable energy credits. But with each pedal push, cyclists are putting a dent in Philadelphia's carbon footprint. And University City bike sharing consultants CityRyde want you to know how much your morning ride is effecting the planet.

Creating a personalized version of the carbon metering software they have in city-wide bike sharing programs from Paris to Portland, CityRyde introduced a new mobile application this week helping bikers and walkers monitor their carbon savings and see how much their car is polluting.  The company is beta testing on Android phones with hopes to expand to Blackberry and iPhone in the next month and is working on adding public transit to the application.

Twenty-five percent of the world's carbon emissions come from daily transportation.

"Knowledge is really power," says CityRyde CEO Tim Ericson. "I don't think anyone really understands the impact of their daily activities."

Through corporate partnerships, Ericson and his team hope to offer incentives for people to reduce their carbon emissions. Using increasingly comprehensive mapping software, CityRyde can examine a user's location, route and rate of speed to determine what mode of transportation a rider is using to keep things honest, holding sustainable to a higher standard and making it worth your while in the process.

"A perfect example would be (all-natural foods maker) Cliff Bar or one of those type of companies offering product samples or other incentives in exchange for those carbon credits, essentially giving them a marketing piece and a PR piece combined into one package," says Ericson.

Source: Tim Ericson, CityRyde
Writer: John Steele 

Farmers across Central Pennsylvania will be celebrating another plentiful harvest season this fall, but thanks to Weavers Way and the Awbury Arboretum, there will also be plenty of celebrating to do in the city. The Weavers Way Community Farm, a Northwest Philadelphia urban farm tended by high school students and used to make local products by community members,  is honoring another successful year. The Weavers Way farm celebrates this Saturday from 11am-3pm at Awbury Arboretum with the second annual Northwest FarmFest, a country festival for Philadelphia's city farmers.

"This farm is making sustainable agriculture a part of this urban community," says farm committee member Josh Brooks. "This is a time to gain acknowledgment for the farm, spread awareness and just celebrate that it's there. And have fun."

As the Weavers Way urban farm offers students and community members all the benefits of local agriculture--fresh produce, low prices, local cultivation--the Chestnut Hill food co-op's members and community program directors bring all the country comforts of a small-town festival to the big city. The Northwest FarmFest is free and open to the public, presenting musical performances from local acts, pumpkin painting, hay rides, and farm tours. And of course, the Weavers Way Farmstand will have plenty of homegrown produce on sale, along with prepared food from the Weavers Way's Marketplace Program, a school-based cooperative food business run by students. Weavers Way hopes the event will be a venue to show off many school programs focused on the benefits and lessons of local, healthy eating. And of course, to celebrate the harvest.

"We will also be promoting the whole aspect of Weavers Way Community Programs who work with schools to create a marketplace, teaching about food and creating a market" says Brooks. "We'll have food, some barbecue, the marketplace will be selling some food and drink."

Source: Josh Brooks, Weavers Way Farm
Writer: John Steele

It's one of life's great mysteries: you can travel to a thousand cities and eat at a hundred fancy restaurants and drink a dozen craft beers at each of the bars along the way. But a meal never tastes as good as one at your favorite neighborhood haunt. And according to Philadelphia's sustainability leaders, this phenomenon is not just good for your appetite, it can be good for your neighborhood and your city as well.

Based on a concept created by the William Penn Foundation, partners from the Sustainable Business Network, Azavea and NPower created Common Space, a new mapping platform that creates a network of neighborhood establishments within a certain walkable, bikeable or busable distance to help residents support local business.

"The really cool thing is, I can map my friend's common space as well as my own," says SBN Executive Director Leanne Krueger-Braneky. "So if I am leaving from my office in Center City and meeting my husband who is coming from our house in West Philadelphia, he could say he is going to bike for 15 minutes and I could say I was going to walk for 20 minutes and Common Space will map the area where we would be able to meet up and map local culture events and businesses in that field."

Partnering with tastemakers like UWISHUNU and Yelp, Common Space shows you the best spots in your transit area, allowing you the most sustainable way possible to hit your next favorite haunt. After their trial run, organizers hope to partner with citywide festivals and cultural events like LiveArts and Philly Beer Week.

"Sustainability was one of the values William Penn outlined, which is why they wanted to partner with us," Krueger-Braneky says. "Because the application does encourage walking, biking, and public transit, it's a way of showing what's going on in the city while encouraging alternative transit."

Source: Leanne Krueger-Braneky, SBN
Writer: John Steele

Philadelphians know SEPTA's Market-Frankford El as the Blue Line. But a new pilot program, which stores leftover power from the subway's regenerative braking system in a massive battery, would make the Blue Line a little greener, and provide SEPTA some much-needed capital.

Earlier this month, SEPTA and Conshohocken smart-grid firm Viridity Energy announced receipt of $900,000 from the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority to install a massive storage battery--about the size of a cement truck--at SEPTA's Kensington electrical substation. The current regenerative braking system transmits electricity, collected as trains enter stations, to other electric vehicles. But if no other vehicles are in range, the electricity is lost. The battery, capable of storing up to a megawatt of electricity, would siphon energy to be resold to the power grid. Viridity estimates that this one battery will generate $500,000 a year in clean, green profit. SEPTA has already applied for new funding to install these battery systems at all 33 substations across their service area.

"With this technology, SEPTA can be very strategic with their power; when they are using it, when they are storing it and when they are selling it back into the grid," says Viridity Director of Business Development Laurie Actman. "At peak periods, the grid is willing to pay premium prices for sources of reliable load."

Since 2008, SEPTA has struggled to execute capital improvements to its transit infrastructure. Most recently, a proposed switch to SmartCards has drawn scrutiny from city media and transit bloggers. When Governor Ed Rendell made a play to turn state thoroughfare I-80 into a federal toll road, he promised a chunk of the resulting revenue to SEPTA. Since Rendell's proposal was defeated, SEPTA has been looking for other ways to fund improvements, from fare hikes to advertising on the sides of trains. The battery system technology could be the answer they have been looking for that will finally bring the Philadelphia subway into the 21st century.

"As we all know, SEPTA has always had a constrained budget and not enough money to invest in its infrastructure," says Actman. "For so long, SEPTA's infrastructure, that was built nearly a century ago, has been a liability. We are turning that into an opportunity."

Source: Laurie Actman, Viridity Energy
Writer: John Steele