EPA Awards Sustainability Grant to Philadelphia

Tom Mihalek / AFP/Getty Images

Work­ers set up for a con­ven­tion, with the Philadel­phia sky­line in the background.

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