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"Green Initiatives"
This weekend an estimated 40,000 people marched in Washington DC to support action for climate change. They gathered outside President Obama’s doorstep to urge immediate rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline and energy extraction practices that threaten the environment.
The Keystone XL Pipeline project would pipe some of the planet’s dirtiest oil from Canada through America to be shipped overseas through the Gulf of Mexico. This tar sands oil proposal could be disastrous for our planet – producing tar sands crude that kicks out two or three times as much carbon pollution as producing conventional crude oil.
Who cares about what we throw away? Why does it matter? And have you ever, truly thought about it?
The Taxonomy of Trash is determined to find out.
Back in October 2011, a group of artists were at the Revolution Recovery recycling center right here in Philadelphia to participate in the Recycled Artist-in-Residency program. They realized there were jewels in the rubbish, or dare I say, that ‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure’ .
The Taxonomy of Trash is an analytical approach to stuff we throw away. They’re building a
Mayor Michael Nutter has done a lot of cool stuff for Philly’s sustainability scene.
In 2009, he realized that the city needed to treat every street as a “Complete Street” to accommodate the different ways Philadelphians choose to travel – whether by bike, bus, car, train or strolling. Thus, the Complete Streets Policy was required to accommodation safety and convenience for all users and balance the needs of ALL users. (This is why the recent Bill 120532, which increases fines for improper parking AND bicycling behavior emphasized importance on multiple transit types.) The result? Check out the Complete Streets Handbook 2013 final version, which has been released for your eyes here.
We reviewed the 163 page handbook for you. To save you time, here are some sustainable observations:
How can you take those dying Christmas trees with all the pine needles and turn them into a greener 2nd life? We have good news for our Where Can I Wednesday column: there are a LOT of choices this holiday season! (Find out a full list of locations by neighborhood and guidelines to recycle those Christmas trees, after the jump!)
Philadelphia, Bike Share is FINALLY coming to a block near you!
Already popular in other cities ’round the world and one Philly residential building, a bike share program is in the works for our city. Mayor Michael Nutter & the administration are seeking
Attention all those who bike Philly streets: The Complete Streets Bill is up for discussion in City Council TOMORROW, Thursday 15th.
Councilman Mark Squilla, the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities, the Streets and Law Departments, and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia all worked together to improve those often rowdy biker-car-pedestrian relations. Heck, maybe they even were inspired after reading my rebuttal to Carrie Denny’s infamous “Cyclists suck, my gas-guzzling SUV rules all Philly Streets” Philly Mag post. (Maybe Philly Mag even got the point since they mentioned this bill is even good for cars.)
The bill has 2 main goals:
Are you an Instagram all-star? Or can you put your creative iPhone hat on for a minute to say why you SEPTA Philly?
SEPTA is trying to get younger, hipper public transit riders by launching a SEPTA Instagram Contest starting today.
SEPTA commuters are encouraged to (Find out about the contest, how to enter and what SWEET prizes you can win, after the jump!)
The air’s crisp and the leaves are turning color… which means that we’ll be filled with an abundance of leaves on our streets, houses and curbs soon enough. Which leads to…
Philadelphia’s Bagged Leaf Drive 2012 (by the Streets Department) is approaching! What do you need to know for this year?
Philly’s cleaning up! Both the ‘city blocks’ & ‘vacant lots’ are both being judged HARD in Philly this week by two Philly-based organizations.
The Philadelphia More Beautiful Committee (PMBC) is in the middle of judging 17 city blocks to wrap up the 2012 “cleaning season” in Philadelphia. The 2012 Clean Block Contest selected finalists from over 6,600 organized blocks which had cleanups throughout the year. Fun stats for this year’s beautification efforts include: (Find out more about city efforts & see a before/after, after the jump!)
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