Philly

Curious about cloth diapering? Look no further than Cloth, the new hotspot on East Passyunk in Philadelphia. Did you know an estimated 18 billion diapers are thrown into landfills every year? They take 500 years to decompose, are expensive... and disposable. Plus, some diapers contain dangerous chemicals dioxins, VOCs and possibly carcinogens. Do you want your precious baby in that? Angela and Shai Halperin recognized that parents new to cloth diapers often must buy online. As two working parents, they had a lot of online successes (and failures) with cloth diapers. Plus, the closest store was 30-40 minutes outside of Center City Philadelphia. They recognized the need more and more for a Cloth Diaper store. Cloth was born. I stopped by Cloth to talk with Angela about more about the store. Find out more, after the jump!

Today is the day: Get out that extra change (if you didn't hoard tokens last week...) SEPTA fares increase. SEPTA has routine fare increases to raise revenue - their 2014 operating budget is $38 million short of the $1.3 billion. Hey, when you're the #1 large transit system in the country, you have to keep up your eco-friendly programs, large fleet & awesomeness somehow. Find out the new SEPTA fares & other changes, after the jump:

Greenworks Philadelphia 2013 progress report, which marks our progress against the ambitious Greenworks plan, has been officially released to the public. The 4th annual Greenworks progress report boasts that work on 95% of the original 166 initiatives is underway or complete. Greenwork's goal is to complete the initiatives by 2015, in order to infamously become America's Greenest City. 43 initiatives were completed as of 2013. Find out more about the Greenworks 2013 progress report, after the jump:

I haven't been able to post much this week due to unforeseen circumstances on the homefront, but Paige Wolf graciously allowed me to guest post for her. Here's how placing a fee on plastic bags will help (and check out the rest of Paige's blog too!): From Philthadelphia to America's Greenest City.

The Streets Department once again held the Philly Spring Cleanup Day this past April. I must admit, I wasn't as enthused as I was last year. The sixth annual city-wide collaboration returned to our previous hosting site at 8th & Poplar, and we had a few hiccups along the way: a few less participants as last year, a technical glitch that missed our site at the pickup center, and a forgotten printed form. Our cleanup team worked from 9 to 2, picking up everything from used water bottles to sweeping cigarette butts in the masses. One of our volunteers, the lovely Jessica, even joked that the Hurricanes 40s must have been pretty good since there were so many bottles laying around the field... Find out the benefits of cleaning Up Philly (year-round), after the jump...

As the owner of Chewy’s, one of our top seven green food trucks, Charlie Sokowski's love for food fuels his ambitions. This past weekend, Chewy’s competed with other finalists at the 2013 Vendy Awards in Penn Treaty Park for a chance to be crowned the best food truck in Philly. Sokowski and his staff handed out samples of delicious Carolina pulled-pork sandwiches and maple syrup-covered fried chicken to lucky patrons. Find out more about Chewy's sustainable efforts after the jump!

OK, so we can't come in first every time. The Trust for Public Land came out with the ParkScore list, ranking Philadelphia #14 out of the major US cities (top 50). Find out how does ParkScore works and how Philly measures up, after the jump!

Have you "Done the Math" recently on the carbon counts on our atmosphere? It's passed a milestone - and not a good one at 400 parts per million. This guest post comes from Clean Air Council's Federal Advocacy Coordinator, Russell Zerbo.   30 people came out to LOVE Park and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 3 headquarters on Thursday to listen to speakers and meet with the Public Affairs Director. Why? To demand that EPA finalize standards on carbon pollution to protect public health and curb climate change. Shipley High School students, Clean Air Council and Sierra Club members and other concerned Philadelphians, set up umbrellas and beach chairs on a swatch of grass in LOVE park to draw attention to the damage done to the Jersey Shore from Superstorm Sandy. The damage has been exacerbated by rising global temperatures, sea levels and carbon dioxide emissions. Last year, the U.S. experienced 11 extreme weather events that cost more than $1 billion each in losses and resulted in 349 deaths. The largest global disasters of 2012 were Hurricane Sandy (costing $65 billion) and the year-long Midwest drought ($35 billion). These events accounted for nearly half of the world's economic losses. Find out about what is the Federal Carbon Dioxide Pollution Standard - and the current status - after the jump.

Hate plastic bags getting caught in trees and littering our streets? We have great news to share: Logan Welde, Staff Attorney of the Clean Air Council will be on WHYY Radio Times (90.9 FM)  to discuss plastic bags and our proposed legislation, today from 11 AM - 12 PM. I've been working with Logan for almost a year on these efforts (like at Greenfest 2012) and he is a passionate, intelligent guy. It will be a great broadcast. Inquirer columnist Sandy Bauers also published our open letter to City Council this morning to coincide. Logan will be debating Hilex Poly, which is the biggest plastic bag manufacturer in the US (and a part of the American Progressive Bag Alliance). Many people have been asking: So what has been going on with plastic bags?