ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ/Staff Photographer
"Green-collar jobs" are a key to the future. At the Energy Coordinating Agency, which recently began a job-training program, students learn how to retrofit insulation.
The big idea: Smart cities embrace sustainability
What it means:
The term "sustainability" boils down to the "triple bottom line" for any company or program: Its impact on people, its impact on the planet and its profitability.
The embrace of profit as one of the three elements of the triple bottom line is sensible, not cynical - we can make a good living from living well.
Besides, marrying a movement to money does wonders for its viability, and that's what makes the term different from, say, '60s farming communes.
"To just say 'green' . . . too often, that leaves out the impact on people and jobs, the social-justice impact," says Leanne Krueger-Braneky, executive director of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia (SBN).
Sustainability is more all-encompassing than any single definition or catch phrase. To City Planning Director Alan Greenberger, sustainability is as close as the buildings where we live and work.
"The rowhouse is almost the perfect sustainability model," Greenberger said. "You have two warm walls. But, the houses are old, so weatherizing them is key."
The other end of that spectrum is a commitment to environmentally sensible new construction, from studio apartments to the Comcast Center, but also construction of new roads and bridges that factors in storm-water management and open space. It's about meeting the needs of the present without messing up the future.
"Sewers are probably one of the more important and least sexy things out there," Greenberger said. "Cities are by their very definition pretty impervious, so water is diverted into sewers." When a city does that well, it sustains a big resource while sustaining health. And that sustains energy. Which sustains financial resources. And on and on.
Underground cisterns, like the system at the new Salvation Army building in Hunting Park, collect rainwater for use in irrigating the site. Such effective water management is a huge help.
How Philadelphia
stacks up:
Philly places in the top 10 (of the nation's 50 largest cities) in four sustainability categories, according to SustainLane's 2008 rankings: city commuting, metro transit ridership, locally produced food and natural disaster risk (not including Eagles draft day). We're in the top 20 for six other categories, including tap-water quality, a "green economy" and housing affordability.
Most important, in 2008, Mayor Nutter created an Office of Sustainability and made it a cabinet-level post. Penn heavyweight Mark Alan Hughes runs it, and he tends to instill instant religion in those who hear him speak.
And while we may not be at the level of a Portland or Seattle, for a large East Coast town that was dominated by manufacturing not so long ago, we are somewhat of a leader.
Wednesday, Mayor Nutter unveils "Greenworks Philadelphia," an comprehensive framework to make Philadelphia the greenest city in the U.S. by 2015. It sets goals in five areas - energy, environment, equity, economy and engagement.
Best example:
