neighborhood innovation : Innovation + Job News

One of the hardest parts of a veterinarian's job is dealing with scared or skittish animals. Oftentimes, your four-legged friend knows they are going to the doctor and they don't like it. But Wayne veterinarian Dr. Holly Connolly has discovered a way to virtually eliminate these fears and the bad behavior that comes at the traditional vet's office. She took her practice on the road.

Earlier this month, Connolly started Are We Home Vet?  a mobile veterinary office run out of the back of a truck, offering all the same services of a traditional veterinary office, but without the hassles of leaving home.

"Pets are so much happier at home and we are able to catch them before their anxiety level gets so high," says Connolly. "By the time you get them in the car and make that 20-minute trip, they are already worked up so those animals that were a handful at the traditional office are completely different animals in the mobile setting."

The truck is fully equipped with an x-ray machine, a full-service lab, a laser for laser surgery and an exam table. Connolly says that, in the brief time she has been doing it, many of her regular clients have already taken advantage of the service. But perhaps more successful in attracting clients has been the truck itself. Connolly says she receives calls on a daily basis from people who have seen her out and about on her way to her next pet project.

"We will be driving around and you are basically driving a big billboard," says Connolly. "We have literally gotten calls while we are on the road. So the mobile unit has been a draw in and of itself!"

Source: Holly Connolly, Are We Home Vet?
Writer: John Steele

In Philadelphia in late November, keeping cool has never been a problem. That is, unless you run the Philadelphia Marathon. The annual race, which took place on Sunday, Nov. 21, attracted a field of over 11,000 runners, all battling for the finish line. When they got there, runners were greeted by the folks at Arctic Ease, a Phoenixville company specializing in cryotherapy wraps and pads proven to reduce swelling and stay cool for hours. The wraps require no time in the freezer and can be attached for more mobility.

A veteran of the health care industry and avid athlete, CEO Carol Forden founded Arctic Ease in 2009 after creating a chemical compound in her garage. Designed to remove heat from injured tissue, Arctic Ease keeps affected areas at a safe 60 degrees, reducing swelling and pain.

"If you are a weekend warrior and you overdo it or you are a runner in a marathon, on Monday, it is going to be a little tough to move around," says Forden. "What this product does is removes that swelling so you don't have that pain on Monday."

Along with offering wraps to runners at the finish line, Arctic Ease added a product sample to each marathoner's registration info and sponsored a massage tent. The company has appeared at marathons across the country and, after hiring four top-level positions in October 2009, is looking to expand into new markets in 2011. Along with expansion into other sports, Forden says the product may soon help osteoarthritis sufferers return mobility to creaky joints. 

"If you have ever twisted an ankle and wound up in the ER, you know that until they reduce the swelling, they can't do much," says Forden. "If you have nerve damage or a sprained ankle, they will tell you to come back three weeks later and they want you icing that whole time. Arctic Ease makes this process a little easier."

Source: Carol Forden, Arctic Ease
Writer: John Steele

The day after Thanksgiving has become as sacred to retailers as any nationally-recognized holiday. The revenue they reap can make up for an entire year of lackluster sales. With another Black Friday approaching, the Enterprise Center's Retail Resource Network (RRN) wants to ensure that Philadelphia's commercial corridors get the most they can out of this holiest of shopping days. This Wednesday (Nov. 17), RRN hosts the Visual Merchandising Workshop, an annual event to help retailers with everything from holiday window displays to store layouts, all in the name of a successful holiday season.

"This workshop touches on the psychology of the shopper," says Retail Resource Network Director Andy Toy. "How you light your storefront, the types of colors you use, the way the aisles are laid out. If done right, it will definitely increase the amount of sales a business can make per shopper and just get people in the store."

The Retail Resource Network is a division of the Enterprise Center that helps retail businesses around the city connect with the resources they need--whether it be funding, consulting or supply chain--to be successful. Toy says that simple things--not having too many stickers on your windows, creating wider aisles--can have a great impact on business. Not only do these workshops seek to help retailers but if the Enterprise Center can target the Black Friday mobs to one store, their hope is that traffic to the rest of the commercial corridor would increase, making it a Happy Holiday for the whole neighborhood.

"If we improve one storefront on a commercial corridor, we will bring more people to that area," says Toy. "That helps improve business for all the stores, makes it safer because there are more people on the street and encourages others to do likewise."

Source: Andy Toy, Retail Resource Network
Writer: John Steele

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

For motorcycle enthusiasts, slang phrases describe everything from a type of muffler to a type of accident. One such term passed between riders---'keep the dirty side down and the shiny side up'--has not been lost on RevZilla, the South Philly biker accessory shop-turned-online vendor. With seven-figure sales numbers and a Chamber of Commerce Emerging Business of the Year award under their belt, founders Nick Auger, Anthony Bucci and Matt Kull look to take their business to the next level as they expand staff and marketing this winter.

"We were hobbyists, casually into riding and we were a little bit frustrated with our options buying online from the companies who would become our biggest competitors. We were also hard-core technology guys, all of the founders had worked in the web world, and we thought we could bring something to the motorcycle industry that hadn't been done before," says Bucci. "We aspire to be the Zappos of the motorcycle industry. Everything is about the customer experience, much less about being Wal-Mart and more about being like Barney's."

Started out of an apartment, RevZilla eventually expanded to a small store at 4th and Fitzwater before moving to it's current location, a 4000 sq. ft. retail store at 38 Jackson Street in South Philly. But with their technology backgrounds, an expanded web presence seemed a natural fit for the founders, who have added hi-def video, digital buying guides and sleek social networking functionality that they feel sets them apart in a crowded e-commerce marketplace. Now, as they expand, they are hoping to find kindred spirits who can keep up technologically but who also live what they sell. 

"We are looking to grow the company and our team to spread the RevZilla brand even further," says Bucci. "But we are really looking for people to join the team who love motorcycles, who live and breathe the sport, just like we do."

Source: Anthony Bucci, RevZilla
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

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

Something exciting happened during WHYY's fall pledge drive. And it wasn't a riveting Terry Gross interview. For the third consecutive year, NPR stations saw growth in the 25-to-40 demographic. Welcoming this younger demographic will not be easy for WHYY, Philadelphia's NPR affiliate and home for political discourse and intellectual public programming. So the station created NewsWorks, an online news and commentary site, launching Nov. 15. Enlisting its own journalists and regional content providers, NewsWorks hopes to create a hyperlocal news focus and bring enlightened discussion from the airwaves to the internet.

"The 2008 election was a great thing for NPR stations because a lot of people considered NPR to be the most reliable place to get news on that election so we brought a lot of new people into the tent," says WHYY Director of News and Civic Dialogue Chris Satullo. "Now we are trying to keep them. We are looking for two key demographics we hope will be the early adopters of NewsWorks. One is the younger technologist professional group--the creative class in Philly. And the other is the middle-aged professional who has been an NPR fan for a long time."

One of the goals of NewsWorks is to replicate the open discussion created on air at WHYY and bring it to the internet. Website comment boards are not traditionally known for scintillating conversation so NewsWorks will employ a self-governing rewards system, allowing users to give points to other users for contributing a valuable comment. By changing commenting and by asking the right questions, Satullo believes productive dialogue can occur online.

"We are going to work very hard not to frame things as black and white, left vs. right," says Satullo. "We are trying to get the 360-degree opinions and how people's experiences shape their opinions."

Source: Chris Satullo, WHYY
Writer: John Steele

With unemployment hovering at 9 percent nationally, there have been hundreds of theories posited for how we have created the first "jobless recovery" in our history. Have you ever thought maybe people just aren't good at job hunting? A group of Chester County development professionals have. They launched HireOneCC.com, an online community where employers can pledge to hire at least one local worker in the next year and employers can find the companies who are hiring.

"There are 18,000 people currently unemployed in Chester County and a lot of them have advanced degrees and are really struggling trying to find new jobs," says project director Stan Schuck. "Our hope is that we can put the right resources together to get them the right set of skills or put them in touch with someone who is indeed hiring. I think traditional ways of getting jobs--blindly sending resumes out--just aren't working today."

Hire One was founded as an employment task force last July after Joseph's People president Cheryl Spaulding, who heads the faith-based social organization, contacted local development officials from the Chester County Economic Development Council about getting business involved in hiring. Since launching the site a week ago, eight businesses have already listed multiple available positions and pledged to not only hire one local employee but reduce worker reduction plans by 2.5 percent.

"In order to do this right, we had to be a resource for both job seekers and employers," says Schuck. "There are companies that don't have the financing they need or can't find people with the right skill sets. We want to make sure we link them up with the right resources."

Source: Stan Schuck, HireOne
Writer: John Steele

At construction co-working space NextFab Studio, artists, hobbyists and inventors can work on anything they please, from building a home shelving unit to inventing a toy robot. The only thing they don't want to see is people standing around. So when the studio electronics lab got more spectators than workers, NextFab created a new addition to its class rotation. Enlisting the services of Drexel University co-op student Ryan Barnes as technical supervisor, NextFab's electrical course teaches the science behind electricity and rudimentary skills for building an LED circuit. The second level course teaches soldering and other early projects to turn the watchers into doers.

"From the get-go, NextFab has had an electronics lab and people would always walk by who knew next to nothing about electronics but you could just see them thinking "what could I do in here?" says Barnes.

Opened in January as an extension of the University City Science Center, NextFab offers Philadelphia's innovators, craftsmen and entrepreneurs a workshop complete with hand tools, 3D printers, computer controlled machine tools, software, and electronics workbenches all in a 3,600-sq-ft studio. Since its inception, it has become a popular spot for artists and craftsmen to create profitable home businesses. The classes are geared both towards practical skills and functional assistance, tailoring instruction to each worker's projects.

"Electronics is such a huge field that it is tough to teach everything that we need to know so the way this class is taught is definitely on a craft level," says Barnes. "We have a lot of artists that work here and this is a way to explain electronics and show how they can be used on different projects."

Source: Ryan Barnes, NextFab Studio
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

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

Who didn't love art class as a kid? Painting, drawing, playing with clay; it was almost like a second recess. A group of artists and education reformers hope to remind the Fishtown community both young and old of the joys of arts education this week as they host Community Arts Fest, a series of hands-on art projects and booths featured at the Crane Arts Building this Sunday. Community Arts Fest  (CAFe) will give the varied artistic leaders of Philadelphia the chance to introduce themselves to one of the city's most creative neighborhoods.

"We're all collectively working together to promote what's available to families because all of these arts groups are fighting over the same little bit of money," says Rachel Zimmerman, Executive Director of visual arts group and CAFe presenter InLiquid. "Hopefully, by expanding awareness, we will get more people involved. There is a ton of stuff happening in Philadelphia geared toward arts education but few people know what's happening."

Along with introducing Fishtown to some fine arts education interests, CAFe will serve as a fundraiser for local youth programs at The Cruz Recreation Center and the new ArtsRising "ArtsZones", which are now being established as hubs of arts and cultural activities for students and their families throughout the Philadelphia area. Collected donations will strengthen existing after-school programs and fund new ones.

"It's not so much an exhibition so much as each group will be leading an activity," says Zimmerman. "The idea is to engage kids but also to engage adults to get them invested in what is happening in the community at large."

Source: Rachel Zimmerman, InLiquid
Writer: John Steele