EPA Awards Sustainability Grant to Philadelphia

• Susan Phillips
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  Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

Sustainability experts will help Philadelphia become a more livable city using a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA selected 8 cities through a competitive process as part of their Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities program. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has made sustainability one of his goals.
“My administration aims to integrate sustainability into the city’s buildings, neighborhoods, and the lives of its residents,” said Nutter through a press release. “This grant will provide essential resources to make this a reality.”
The other cities include Lafayette, Indiana; Dearborn, Michigan; Eden Prairie, Minnesota; Greensboro, North Carolina; Lakewood, Colorado; Oakland, California; and Louisville, Kentucky.
Each city gets a visit and free consultation with Global Green USA, which will make both environmental policy and infrastructure recommendations.

“Cities are responsible for up to 70% of global warming pollution,” said Walker Wells, Director of Global Green USA’s Green Urbanism Program. But they can also be the laboratories for climate friendly solutions that save money, improve health and quality of life.”

For more information on the program, check out these links:
For more information about LEED-ND visit:http://www.nrdc.org/cities/smartgrowth/files/citizens_guide_LEED-ND.pdf
A guide for how LEED-ND can be used by local governments is available here:http://www.usgbc.org/ndgovguide
More about US EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program is available here: http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/buildingblocks.htm

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