If talk about greenhouse gases or carbon footprints makes your eyes glaze over, think about this:
New parks and leafy trees throughout the city, more farmers' markets with fresh food for sale, cheaper household energy bills and - most importantly - more than 10,000 new jobs.
That's Mayor Nutter's vision for the city in his new sustainability plan, Greenworks Philadelphia. The agenda, which Nutter was to reveal today, sets 15 targets to make Philadelphia a greener place to live by 2015.
The targets include weatherizing city homes, to make them more energy-efficient; increasing recycling rates; lowering greenhouse-gas emissions, and providing local food within walking distance of more residents.
Federal tax dollars from President Obama's $787 billion stimulus package will help the city achieve some of the goals, officials said.
"Greenworks Philadelphia is about the future of Philadelphia," Nutter said. "First and foremost it's about jobs and the economy, it's about energy savings, it's about reducing our dependence on foreign oil and about decreasing our carbon footprint."
With a walkable Center City, extensive public-transit network and massive urban park system, Philadelphia is already considered an environmentally sound place to live. The sustainability Web site www.sustainlane.com last year ranked Philly as the nation's eighth-most environmentally friendly city out of 50 surveyed.
But the city is burdened with older energy-inefficient buildings, a relatively low recycling rate and air quality that does not meet new federal standards.
Director of Sustainability Mark Alan Hughes said that Greenworks builds on the sustainability work already under way in the city, and sets short-term goals to improve lagging areas.
"We tell you exactly what we're going to do," Hughes said. "Unlike other cities, this is not a 2030 plan; this is not a 2050 plan. This is a 2015 plan."
Hughes also stressed that this effort will impact Philadelphians directly, improving quality of life in the city and creating jobs.
"My job is not to sell Philadelphians on carbon reduction," Hughes said. "This is about poverty reduction. This is not about polar bears. This is about prosperity. This is much more an economic-development plan than a traditional environmental plan. This is about jobs, jobs, jobs."
