Happy New Years Eve! 2012 has been quite eventful for Philadelphia, especially with these 6 Philly green initiatives. Green Philly Blog’s year was full of furthering sustainability, both online and off.

We hosted a Philly Spring Cleanup Day Site in Northern Liberties, removing many pounds of trash and debris from a shared sports park. We were thrilled at the turnout and plan on increasing cleanups for 2013 due to the success.

Our “Ban the Bag” day united 10 sustainable bloggers across Philadelphia to discuss plastic bag pollution and push for a solution from City Council and our mayor. This initiative, which was covered by Philly.com, Philly Mag & KYW started the conversation and gave attention to this crucial issue. Another great outcome was forming a sustainable blogger group in Philadelphia to improve our collective efforts with green conversations.

Since the initiative, we’ve met with several Philadelphia leaders to find the best path to pass Philadelphia legislation. We’ve decided to pursue a plastic bag fee instead of a ban. We will continue to reach out to businesses and the local Philadelphia community to emphasize the benefits  (like saving taxpayer dollars with lesser pollution, continuing Philadelphia’s greenest city path and reducing plastic pollution in waterways).

On individual levels, we participated in cleanup efforts locally and for Sandy victims in New York with friends United By Blue. We look forward to giving back to the community and encouraging others to do the same.

On a blog level, we grew our readership in 2012 and were able to update the blog functionality to make it more helpful for you. Green Philly Blog covered sustainability news just for you. We created columns like Where Can I Wednesday  and City Spotlight for consistent content. Most importantly, we had a blast interacting with your comments, Facebook and Twitter conversations.

We look forward to giving you what you want to read about in 2013. Thank you for contributing to the Green Philly Blog community and cheers to you!

Here’s to a greener 2013!

Julie & Beth

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Julie Hancher is Editor-in-Chief of Green Philly, sharing her expertise of all things sustainable in the city of brotherly love. She enjoys long walks in the park with local beer and greening her travels, cooking & cat, Sir Floofus Drake. View all posts by Julie Hancher