From commiting to carbon neutrality by 2050 to setting out ambitious plans to make our transportation system more sustainable to leading initiatives aimed at remedying injustices for residents disproportionately impacted by climate change, the City of Philadelphia has made significant sustainability progress over the past year, despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Greenworks, Philadelphia’s plan for sustainability, includes eight visions that guide our work toward a resilient, equitable, and sustainable city. In celebration of Earth Day, we’ve published our 2021 Greenworks Initiatives Update to highlight recent successes and how the City is advancing toward its sustainability goals. Read on to learn about recent successes across each of the eight visions and things to look forward to in 2021 and beyond.
Recent Successes
- Committed to Carbon Neutrality by 2050: In early 2021, the City committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. To meet this commitment, Philadelphia will need to achieve net-zero GHG emissions in the buildings, energy, transportation, and waste sectors.
- Released Climate Action Playbook: To outline existing City actions to combat climate change and identify where additional action is needed to advance the city toward carbon neutrality, OOS released a draft of the Philadelphia Climate Action Playbook, a one-stop resource detailing how Philadelphia is responding to the climate crisis.
- Hired First Chief Resilience Officer: Mayor Kenney named Saleem Chapman as Philadelphia’s first Chief Resilience Officer to coordinate adaptation and resilience efforts across City government, host cross-sector convenings to galvanize momentum, and secure buy-in around the City’s emerging climate resilience strategy.
- Expanded Food Distribution Sites: To meet increased need during the COVID-19 pandemic, the City expanded its system of meal distribution sites. 9,715,390 student meals, 559,928 senior meals, 483,565 outdoor meals, and 21,671,952 pounds of food have been distributed at City-supported food sites through Share Food Program and Philabundance since the beginning of the pandemic.
- Helped Residents Stay Cool During the Pandemic: The City responded to the unique challenge of helping residents stay cool during the pandemic by pivoting the Beat the Heat Hunting Park Initiative’s focus from its plans to expand a community-based heat relief network to helping residents stay cool at home during the summer of 2020.
- Began Urban Forest Strategic Planning Process: The City launched its first ever urban forest strategic planning process. In support of City-wide equity and sustainability goals, the plan will set out a 10-year strategy to grow, protect, and care for Philadelphia’s tree canopy, and set forth new ways of working with residents to combat climate change. Visit the Philly Tree Plan engagement hub to provide your input.
- Released Philadelphia Transit Plan: The City, regional partners, and SEPTA released the Philadelphia Transit Plan, A Vision for 2045, the City’s roadmap for improving public transit. Highlights include bus priority corridors, plans for full Market-Frankford Line and Broad Street Line accessibility by 2030, a low-income fare program, increasing weekend bus frequency, trolley modernization, and shifting as many trips as possible from automobiles to walking, biking, or transit.
- Received Funding and Technical Assistance to Tackle Food Waste: The City received two funding and technical assistance awards to tackle food waste across multiple sectors.
- Completed Waste-related Pitch & Pilot Projects: Over the past two years, the SmartCityPHL Pitch & Pilot program supported two projects around increasing waste diversion, one focused on construction and demolition waste and another focused on electronics and textiles recycling.
- Held Love Your Park Solo Cleaning and Greening Events: To make it possible for residents to help support local parks during the pandemic, PPR and the Fairmount Park Conservancy launched Love Your Park Solo Cleanups.
Greenworks on the Ground: Resources for Individuals, Communities, and Institutions
Along with our Initiatives Update, we also published updated Greenworks on the Ground resource checklists, which show individuals, communities, and institutions (including businesses, schools, and houses of worship) how they can help make the City’s Greenworks visions a reality. Check out the updated Greenworks on the Ground checklists for:
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