These nominees are doing their parts in providing communities with equitable access to clean air and water, clean open spaces, and energy-efficient resources, as well as protecting local wildlife & habitats.

Join us on August 8th at WHYY for the SustainPHL Awards as we celebrate the nominees and announce the recipients!

SustainPHL 2019 Neighborhood Champion Nominees

• Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild
• Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
• One Art Community Center

Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild

“What bees do is wondrous, amazing, beautiful – and it is a joy and an honor to convey this to others.”

Located in the cradle of American beekeeping, the Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild works to encourage and promote urban beekeeping through fellowship and education, and to raise awareness of the importance of bees to a sustainable environment. 

They educate the public about beekeeping, pollinators, the urban ecosystem in which they live, and provide resources to the beekeeping community. By doing so, the Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild works to build sustainability into the urban fabric, helping to ensure mutual survival of plants and pollinators. Their mission is centered on supporting and growing the base of urban beekeepers in Philadelphia while raising awareness to pollinators in general, with a particular focus on honey bees.

Specifically, they:

• Hold monthly meetings that are free and open to the public
• Provide training
• Maintain an apiary at Awbury Arboretum Agricultural Village
• Provide resources to beekeepers (certified honey house, bulk orders, and more)
• Provide information via newsletters, websites, social media, and speakers

Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Tree Tenders

“We have seen that tree planting and stewardship brings diverse communities together and can be the first step in organizing communities around larger initiatives.”

PHS is a nonprofit organization founded in 1827 as America’s first horticultural society. In addition to producing the world’s largest indoor flower show, PHS operates a comprehensive collection of urban greening, gardening, and tree planting programs that are models for cities across the country. PHS’s tree planting and stewardship programs seek to engage communities to increase and steward a healthy, diverse, and resilient tree cover in southeastern Pennsylvania. The PHS Tree Tenders® program is one of the oldest and most respected volunteer urban tree planting and stewardship programs in the nation, offering affordable training in tree planting, care, and monitoring. To date, more than 5,200 volunteers have been trained and have planted and stewarded thousands of trees since the program’s inception in 1993.

The majority of the trees planted in Philadelphia are within under-served communities. PHS completed a mapping analysis of several datasets including existing tree canopy, population density, crime, and income to determine areas of the city with the highest need for increased tree canopy. Furthermore, PHS has begun to reach out to community organizations within these neighborhoods to provide Tree Tenders training and begin neighborhood-based tree planting.

One Art Community Center

One Art Community Center is creating an urban sustainability project which is designed with the intention of creating an oasis in the middle of the West Philly. They are teaching people how to use the materials and resources around them to make a positive impact on their community and the important skills they need in order to successfully maintain themselves wherever they are. The educational programming at One Art shows that these skills are not only accessible to all but it promotes a happy environment, healthy living, empowering the community to grow and thrive.

Additionally, One Art offers a variety of public workshops and projects which include aquaponics, creating tiny houses, building with recycled materials, utilizing solar, farming, etc. The work that they are doing is so important, especially because it’s happening in a place where so many are trying to survive under the poverty line and don’t have a lot of access to fresh produce or other vital resources.

Join us at SustainPHL on August 8th to find out who will become the 2019 Sustainable Communities award recipient!

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Sarah is a junior at the University of Michigan studying Public Health and Chemistry. She hopes to pursue a future that intertwines her interests in education and public health. Her favorite way of learning is by listening to a good podcast (anything NPR). You can almost always find Sarah with a cup of her favorite beverage, tea. View all posts by Sarah Jang