Philadelphia is moving forward in becoming the Next Great City. This podcast features PennFuture’s director of outreach, Christine Knapp, at the October 23 Urban Sustainability Forum, “Lights, Carbon, Action:  An Energy Action Agenda for Buildings in Pennsylvania.”

Knapp interviews three of the speakers at the forum:  Dan Griffiths, Deputy Secretary for Energy and Technology Deployment for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection; Blondell Reynolds Brown, Councilwoman, City of Philadelphia; and Steve Nadel of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.  The three speakers discuss how Philadelphia can become a green building leader.  They discuss what policies need to be in place to reach that leadership goal.

The Urban Sustainability Forum is one of the public education and outreach efforts of the Next Great City coalition. The coalition is dedicated to creating a positive future for Philadelphia by advocating for common sense, cost effective policies that enhance environmental quality, strengthen neighborhoods and increase the city’s economic competitiveness.

Next Great City is coordinated by PennFuture.  Learn more about all of our projects on our website.

This week’s podcast features PennFuture’s Joy Bergey interviewing Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation about NWF’s work to protect habitat and wildlife from destruction due to global warming. Joy and Larry were both in Nashville for the Climate Project’s Faith Community Training with Al Gore.

You can become part of the global warming solution in Pennsylvania. To learn more, visit our web site to join the Cool Pennsylvania campaign. You can also sign up to attend our upcoming global warming conference, Making the Transition to a Just and Sustainable World, to be held at Beth David Reform Congregation in Gladwyne on Sunday, November 9, 2008 from 2:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The conference features renowned NASA scientist James Hansen; the conference is free, but reservations are required. 

Space is limited, so reserve your seat today.

In this week's podcast, Pam Fendrock, PennFuture's outreach coordinator for northeastern Pennsylvania, spoke to Joe Collins, general manager of VaxServe, a sanofi pasteur company, at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Scranton on October 2, 2008. They were at VaxServe's Go Green! initiative launch.

Collins talks about some of the steps VaxServe has taken to be environmentally conscious in its day-to-day operations. He then describes the Go Green! Summit as a next step in VaxServe's eco-friendly endeavors.

The summit opened with Collins and Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty, who welcomed VaxServe employees and the more than 20 environmentally conscious businesses and public interest organizations that had been invited to set up information tables in one of the hotel's ballrooms. The mayor talked about the importance of keeping Scranton green not only for environmental, but also for economic reasons. When he left, a recent television commercial that promotes the importance of keeping Scranton clean looped on a monitor in a corner of the room. The stars of the commercial? Mayor Doherty and Kevin, a character from The Office television program, which is set in Scranton.

About 100 employees visited each exhibitor's booth, listened to mini presentations and gathered information. Presenters signed cards to confirm attendance at each booth. The employees then turned in their completed cards, received BPA-free water bottles, and were entered to win other prizes.