Rittenhouse Square : Innovation + Job News

Philadelphia is a steamy city, and the proof is issuing out of all those vents. This week, Veolia Energy North America announced the completion of the transition that renames Philly's steam loop provider from Trigen to Veolia. The Center City steam loop is a green idea from way back in the late 1800s, when the Edison Electric Light Company (now PECO) realized it could repurpose exhaust steam from its plant at 9th and Sansom Streets to heat the nearby Irving House on Walnut Street. The system grew to a total of 26 miles of underground pipes.

The synergy was such a success that cities around the country adopted the steam loop concept. Currently, 300 Philly buildings utilize Veolia's steam heat. The highest profile building, literally, is the Comcast Center. According to Mike Smedley, Vice President of the Mid-Atlantic Region for Veolia Energy North America, the tower's "utilization of district energy was one factor that contributed to its status as the tallest LEED-certified building in the US."

Why the name change? Smedley says that the Trigen brand name is only known for district energy, while the Veolia name is synonymous with creative environmental solutions. Not only does Veolia supply steam heat, but it's also pretty chill: the company also "built, owns and operates a 7,000-ton chilled water facility for Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital."

Traditionally, says Smedley, the production of heat and power are separate processes that are energy inefficient because a large portion of fuel burned is lost as waste heat. In contrast, Veolia's combined heat and power (CHP) plant recycles waste heat, and converts it into useful thermal energy. By combining the processes using CHP, says Smedley, Veolia can produce thermal and electrical energy using up to 40 percent less fuel than if the two forms of energy were produced separately.

Source: Mike Smedley, Veolia Energy North America
Writer: Sue Spolan

In the early days of cell phones, text messages were for short, simple messages you had to deliver in an instant. Today, more people text than talk as the technology has become as ubiquitous as the phones themselves. And with a little help from Philadelphia mobile commerce company Xipwire, a text can send more than words, helping pay for meals, send gifts and even settle a restaurant check. This month, Xipwire will test these features at Old City's Zahav Restaurant and University City's Pod, changing the way you celebrate the holidays.

"All the restaurants know they have to stay ahead of the game and they just get it," says Xipwire co-founder Sibyl Lindsay. "It's so much more interactive than bringing a check to the table. When the server gets the text, they can see a profile pop up, it protects our Xipsters and our merchants, and the restaurants are really excited about it."

After premiering the technology last May at the Rittenhouse Row Spring Festival, Xipwire has been working to bring text-to-pay into restaurant locations. Xipwire creators hope new restaurant promotions will make the product more of a household name. Right now, new customers can try out the service in a restaurant setting by sending the following Twitter message "@xipwire can I have the @flyingkite XIPCODE for my free drink @StarrRestaurants Pod in University City." Creators hope this "gift" platform will change the way diners give and receive gift certificates around the holidays.

"This promotion highlights another thing that we are trying to do which is bring giftcards into the 21st century," says co-creator Sharif Alexandre. "I have giftcards in my desk right now that I haven't used because I never bring them with me. If Pod is charging me five dollars for a drink and I have a 25 dollar giftcard sitting in my account, it should know to take that first. And that is how Xipwire works."

Source: Sibyl Lindsay, Xipwire
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

University of Pennsylvania's educational and research internet 2 network MAGPI wants to take Philly's teachers on a trip around the world. From Mexican dance teams to Canadian biology experts to shark researchers in Florida, its hard to believe all these educational programs will fit under one tent. Luckily for attendees of MAGPI's first Content Provider Carnival on Wednesday, these exhibits are all online, streaming and coming live to teachers, students and researchers looking to bring long-distance learning to Philadelphia's classrooms.

"This carnival comes at a unique junction where school budgets are constrained and a lot of the things that are being cut for students are those extracurricular activities or those field trip opportunities and a virtual field trip is a cost-effective way of providing those experiences to students," says MAGPI Manager of Educational Services Heather Weisse Walsh. "Now I am by no means suggesting that it takes the place of a student actually visiting a museum but if that is not a possibility, especially if you have a rural school district that can't get to a metropolitan area very quickly, it's a wonderful alternative."

By bringing 22 webstreams online at the same time, the Content Provider Carnival allows virtual field trip organizers the chance to present to teachers who may not otherwise have time to seek out these educational portals. Besides showcasing unique experiences like swimming with sharks or working as a lumberjack, students will be able to ask questions to presenters and engage with these experiences in real time, bringing them a worldly perspective to students no matter where they live.

"We are going to actually simulcast not just the field trip but a class engaging with it," says Weisse Walsh. "That is so important because teachers have so many different competing priorities right now that doing something new can be scary. This is a way for them to see it in action."

Source: Heather Weisse Walsh, MAGPI
Writer: John Steele

When software developer Andrew Kortina was living in New York, friend and former University of Pennsylvania roommate Iqram Magdon-Ismail often visited him. But when Magdon-Ismail forgot his wallet one weekend, he borrowed a few bucks from Kortina. Magdon-Ismail promptly repaid using a check but with normal banking delays, it took Kortina a week to get his money back. That's when the pair decided there had to be a better way.

They created Venmo, a bill-pay service where users can link a credit card or bank account to make instant payments to friends from the comfort of their mobile device. The service is free and, Kortina says, it will remain free. The company will charge merchants--like several coffee shops in Philadelphia and restaurants in New York--to accept the service. Founded in 2009, Venmo has already put its founders in Inc. Magazine's 30 Under 30. But its creators admit it's still a work in progress, adding features and refining the platform for iPhone and Android markets. The company looks to add three new positions in the next six months to help make Venmo a household name.

"We are always looking to make the site work better," says Kortina. "Any time we meet someone who is really smart and excited about Venmo, we want to hire them."

More than just a bill-pay service, Kortina and Magdon-Ismail see Venmo as a social network; a way to show friends where you have been and what you've been up to. By targeting merchants instead of consumers, Venmo hopes to increase publicity both for their service and for the merchants who use it through Facebook and Twitter connectivity. Forgetting your wallet has never been so much fun.

"We encourage users to make their payments public," says Kortina. "Most of the time, when you are exchanging money with a friend, you are doing something fun like going to a bar or restaurant, going on a ski trip, going to a baseball game, usually something your friends might want to know about."

Source: Andrew Kortina, Venmo
Writer: John Steele

It's a CEO's worst nightmare: your company's most valuable data suddenly disappears. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft sounded the alarm in 2004, when he estimated that intellectual property theft accounted for losses of $250 billion a year. Numerous case studies from Coca-Cola and Forbes have shown the effects as well. From trade secrets to client lists, document security may feel like paranoia but that is no consolation when it happens to you.

Center City cyber security designers DDC (formerly Document Depository Corp) created RADAR, a full-service critical data management system that recently added two new features. The first is a contract tracker that allows companies to share contracts and get digital signatures remotely. The second is a secured online chat room with document-sharing capabilities that DDC calls a Virtual Data Room. With these new products, DDC goes beyond just document sharing solutions to the protection of a company's most critical documents. 

"Most companies store data in filing cabinets, on CD's in e-mail so pulling that all together is a very painful process," says DDC Executive Vice President of Business Development Cristina Greysman. "Not to mention, the fact that, what if your CFO who has all that data stored on their laptop gets hit by a beer truck? What then? Can you get to all that data and if not, how much will it cost to recover it?"

As the company transitions from document sharing to a more security-focused firm, it has drawn private funding for recent additions like the Silicon Valley facility it opened in August or the European facility opened in Dublin, Ireland in September. As the rollout continues for RADAR, DDC will be adding staff as it tries to expand marketing efforts and online product offerings.

"We want to build out our customer support staff," says Greysman of new hires. "We will do consulting with clients to help them determine best practices for putting information into RADAR. It is possible that we will hire some additional sales staff as well."

Source: Cristina Greysman, DDC
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

From the LOVE statue to the Mural Arts Program to Market Street's massive Clothespin, Philadelphia has its share of big, urban art projects. But there is more to creating the next big movement in urban arts than making the largest painting or sculpture. So the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation launched the Knight Arts Challenge, a search looking for urban projects to change the artistic landscape of American cities for the better. Started in Miami, Knight Arts brings it's challenge to Philadelphia this fall.

"We are coming to Philadelphia and it would be presumptuous of us to say that we know just what you need in the arts," says Knight Arts VP Dennis Scholl. "So instead of saying that, we're saying we don't know what Philadelphia's next art idea is and we need you to tell us. It's not about large institutions only getting grants, people who have been in the arts forever only getting grants. It's open to everybody in the community."

After three successful years in Miami, the Knight Arts Challenge has spawned poetry collectives and arts education centers and jazz festivals. Philadelphia's challenge, a three-year, $9 million initiative, will provide new funding for established arts institutions, independent artists, businesses, service organizations and anyone else with a great idea and a plan to execute it. The challenge kicks off October 5 with a cocktail reception, where interested artists can find out how they can contribute to Philadelphia's artistic future.

"Philadelphia has two important things going for it: it has incredible, world-class cultural assets," says Scholl. "But in addition to that, Philadelphia has an incredibly hot, steadily rising art scene, with collectives and up-and-coming performance arts groups. And that is really why we were drawn to Philadelphia, because it's kinda happening, frankly."

Source: Dennis Scholl, Knight Arts
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

Studies in recent years have revealed that while Philadelphia welcomes up to 50,000 freshman to its colleges and universities every year, less than half remained in the region after graduation. That statistic, in part, is what motivates Young Involved Philadelphia, a comprehensive network of young professionals and student groups producing advocacy campaigns and social events to make Philly a better place to live.

This week, the group opens the State of Young Philly: Imagining Philly's Future summit, a massive, two-week event hosting over 30 partnering organizations for speeches, roundtable discussions and brainstorming sessions to make Philadelphia a more attractive place for young people. The summit will focus on four key areas--Community Engagement and Volunteerism, Government and Leadership, Business and Entrepreneurship, and Arts and Culture--in an effort to "engage, educate and empower" young Philadelphia.

"For the first time since the '50s, the city is gaining population, and although we don't have the newest census data yet, we would venture a guess that this growth is due partly to an increasingly vibrant youth culture," says YIP board chair Claire Robertson-Kraft.

With speakers as varied as former Mayor John Street and the Mural Arts Program's Jane Golden, the summit hopes to gain a wide-reaching perspective that can be gleaned into an agenda ranking priorities and creating concrete deliverables. This agenda will inform an ongoing blog and will serve as YIP's action plan for the coming year. YIP hopes to make the summit an annual event, creating a constant barometer on youth culture in Philadelphia.

"The most important thing we hope people take away from the event is a sense of empowerment," says Robertson-Kraft. "As young Philadelphians, we should be organizing, demonstrating our ability to contribute to the debate, and doing more to ensure our voices are heard."

Source: Claire Robertson-Kraft, Young Involved Philadelphia
Writer: John Steele