Meet the SustainPHL Nominees: Neighborhood Champion

Naida Elena Burgos is the former Neighborhood Advisory Committee Coordinator at the Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha where she promoted health, greening, crime prevention, beautification, community cohesion and understanding of climate change affects in Philadelphia. Her role has been to serve as a liaison between community residents and City agencies and to increase meaningful connections among community stakeholders.

When Burgos became involved with the Philly CUSP group, she understood the impact of climate change and environment in her community. When she realized the residents she served are those facing the highest health risks due to climate change and environmental stressors in Philadelphia, it became her passion not only for helping educate residents but also for bringing in the city and partners together.

Seth Budick is a resident and has worked at University City District  (UCD) since 2008 where his role, when not running The Dirt Factory, is as Senior Manager, Policy and Research. UCD is a partnership of institutions, small businesses, and residents that have a primary mission of community revitalization. 

Budick has passions for reducing the amount of organic waste, local food and creating a beautiful public realm. He helped create the Dirt Factory, a free community composting facility in University City that combines the neighborhood’s fallen leaves with organic food waste (dropped off by area residents) to generate high-quality compost that’s distributed for free to neighborhood gardeners, and used in University City’s landscaped public spaces.

In addition to reducing waste and producing compost, Dirt Factory has significantly improved the public realm by replacing an overgrown and blighted lot with an attractive facility. Since it began 4 years ago, the Dirt Factory has produced roughly 35 tons of compost and currently serves about 485 households. The Dirt Factory also hosts many tours and workshops for community and school groups.