Reading Terminal: Go Green Already!

Eating local and "going green" go hand in hand, and in Center City there is no better place for organic and locally farmed eats than Reading Terminal Market. 

I rarely go to a major grocery store, but I found myself at Super Fresh about a week ago. When I asked the cashier for a paper bag, you would think that I had just cursed out his mother. Then he proceeds to put a paper bag inside a plastic one. What?! 

"This is why I go to Reading Terminal," I thought. Until I went back to Reading Terminal and noticed the exact same thing. For a farmers market catering to the city's greenest, the place is environmentally clueless. 

Employees at Iovine's Produce spend their free time stuffing paper bags into plastic ones. Again, what?! Tootsie's Salad Bar briefly offered recycled paper containers, but switched back to plastic, and predominantly styrofoam. At least they ask if you want a bag. At Delilah's you'll walk away with a styrofoam container and a plastic bag whether you want one or not. 

Want to sample some ice cream? Here's a plastic spoon, the existence of which will see less than a minute of action. 

The market does offer recycling cans which is more than most of the city can say, but what's the point? Plastic bags aren't recycled and styrofoam can't be. That's also making the big assumption that the recyclables don't end up in the same dumpster as the trash. 

Considering the clientele, a little effort would pay off. The sad truth is that Philadelphia is a black hole when it comes to the environment. If people can't get trash in the trash cans, they've probably never even heard of recycling.

SEPTA Goes Green...er

As Forbes uses Philadelphia to wipe its butt with seemingly weekly national rankings, the city hasn't allowed the nation's negative impression to dampen its innovate spirit. Perhaps that's because we're used to it.

Recently ranked the nation's most toxic major city, Philadelphia is silently leading the way in alternative energy uses.

While the West Coast's feel good factories charge their yuppies big bucks for a sense of self satisfaction and "green" gimmicks promise to save the earth, here we don't always have the most altruistic motives behind our innovations. We're prompted by the nudge most historically proven to succeed: Money. Whether saving it or making it, we're slowing finding ways to make alternative energies worth their weight in recycled cans, and they could one day save our cash strapped city.

I'm not talking about marketing hybrids and low flow toilets to hipsters. I'm talking about using experimental green technology to actually save money. It's been the dream of idealists for years. Renewable energy should theoretically be cheap, but the technology has always made it a luxury most economically diverse cities couldn't afford.

But not necessarily any more. Not only might Philadelphia be home to the first self sustaining sports complex in the word, SEPTA is now working with Viridity Energy to turn our 100 year old subway system into a fuel efficient hybrid.

The Pennsylvania Energy Department Authority has given SEPTA and Viridity Energy a $900,000 grant to install a regenerative breaking system along the Market-Frankford line generating 1.5 megawatts of power.

The power can use used by accelerating trains, stored for future use, or even sold to the city's power grid. SEPTA is expected to save $500,000. If the technology were applied to the entire system, SEPTA's energy use could be cut by 40%.

Eagles Owner Crunchin' on Some Granola?

On the Eagles opening day in September of 2011, Lincoln Financial Field could be the greenest stadium in the world. The addition of 100 wind turbines, 2500 solar panels, and a power plant capable of running on bio-diesel will easily power any game. Additionally, any extra power will be fed back into the city's electrical grid.

The Eagles will save $60M in energy costs in the next two decades. Owner Jeffrey Lurie is committed to proving environmental friendliness can can also be a wise financial decision.

Dragon Stadium in Taiwan and Stade de Suisse arena in Bern, Switzerland get 100% of their power from the sun, so The Linc will have some competition if it wants to truly call itself the greenest in the world. NASCAR's Pocono Raceway is currently the world's largest solar powered sporting facility.

100 wind turbines and 2500 solar panels will be added to South Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field fully powering the facility with additional power fed back into the city's electrical grid.

As a city nationally synonymous with its litter and oil refineries, Mayor Nutter is committed to making Philadelphia America's greenest city. Most outside the region probably wouldn't equate Philadelphia with environmental friendliness but it isn't unheard of. Compared to a lot of America's largest cities, we're not doing so bad.

West Coast states tend to set the rules for Going Green, but their headlines are made by retrofitting mass transit systems in cities built for the car. Pennsylvania and the region have an historic reputation as the region's Rust Belt, but the densely populated Northeast has never had enough room to submit to freeways and commuters the way California, Oregon, and Washington have. Inadvertently, we've always been green.

We don't take subways, buses, and trains because we want to, we take them because we have to. Adding a few elements of the green kitsch that West Coasters get off on would easily put an insular city like Philadelphia over the top even as Sunoco's fires continue to burn.

It looks like the Eagles are making Philadelphia green in more ways than one.