Last Wednesday, 100 of our closest (and new) friends gathered at United By Blue’s location in Old City to hear from seven experts in sustainability.

Here’s a quick recap.

How Sustainability Works Recap – 1/23 in Old City

Gabriella Paez, the education and community development manager at Esperanza, gave us three tips to engage with our community. One simple task – make sure people can understand, translating information into spanish and other languages.

Morgan Pitts, Marketing and Communications Director of The Energy Co-Op, discussed how the Energy Grid works. Did you know that due to the Pennsylvania grid, we can get our energy from up to 13 states?

The Zero Waste and Litter Director of Philadelphia, Nic Esposito, talked about what happens to our trash and recycling. Often, it gets shipped to China or India. He encouraged us to reuse, talked about his modern-day Milkman and encouraged entrepreneurs to come up with new solutions with our waste stream…

…Which was a perfect time for Rebecca Davies to talk about her company, Remark Glass, which creates new products from recycled glass. She passed around a glass remade from a beer bottle that was found during one of United By Blue’s cleanups. (Talk about full circle…)

Peggy Zwerver talked about her sustainable Earth Bread + Brewery and Bar Hygge, cutting down waste and only sending 60 lbs of trash despite serving 1500 people a week.

Casey Tabor, founder of Philly Microgreens, discussed how there could be an estimated 10 billion people by year 2050. Microgreens can be grown in urban areas, without pesticides and pack nutrition.

Mark Sunderland, founder of Hemp Black, discussed the sustainable nature of hemp fiber, despite the stigmas of CBD, hemp and related products.

Thanks to everyone who attended and made the event a success! Here are a few more photos from the evening.

All photos are by Chris Kendig Photography.

array(3) {
  [0]=>
  object(WP_Term)#12807 (10) {
    ["term_id"]=>
    int(3205)
    ["name"]=>
    string(6) "Events"
    ["slug"]=>
    string(13) "philly-events"
    ["term_group"]=>
    int(0)
    ["term_taxonomy_id"]=>
    int(266)
    ["taxonomy"]=>
    string(8) "post_tag"
    ["description"]=>
    string(0) ""
    ["parent"]=>
    int(0)
    ["count"]=>
    int(83)
    ["filter"]=>
    string(3) "raw"
  }
  [1]=>
  object(WP_Term)#10452 (10) {
    ["term_id"]=>
    int(3626)
    ["name"]=>
    string(19) "Green Philly Events"
    ["slug"]=>
    string(19) "green-philly-events"
    ["term_group"]=>
    int(0)
    ["term_taxonomy_id"]=>
    int(3634)
    ["taxonomy"]=>
    string(8) "post_tag"
    ["description"]=>
    string(0) ""
    ["parent"]=>
    int(0)
    ["count"]=>
    int(25)
    ["filter"]=>
    string(3) "raw"
  }
  [2]=>
  object(WP_Term)#10499 (10) {
    ["term_id"]=>
    int(3625)
    ["name"]=>
    string(24) "How Sustainability Works"
    ["slug"]=>
    string(24) "how-sustainability-works"
    ["term_group"]=>
    int(0)
    ["term_taxonomy_id"]=>
    int(3633)
    ["taxonomy"]=>
    string(8) "post_tag"
    ["description"]=>
    string(0) ""
    ["parent"]=>
    int(0)
    ["count"]=>
    int(1)
    ["filter"]=>
    string(3) "raw"
  }
}

Julie Hancher is the co-founder and Executive Director of Green Philly, an independent media organization making sustainability accessible, affordable and actionable. Since launching Green Philly in 2008, she has grown it from a passion project into a leading voice for local climate storytelling, pairing impactful journalism with community events and experiences. Julie is a frequent speaker on climate, media innovation and the future of local journalism, and is the creator of SustainPHL and EcoFair. Outside of Green Philly, you can find her hiking, biking, traveling, or exploring Philadelphia. View all posts by Julie Hancher