Swarthmore isn't resting on its green laurels

Looking back, Swarthmore's leaders are a tad foggy on how the borough came to far outpace other communities in the use of alternative energy.

Maybe it stemmed from the borough's long history of environmental activism. Or the nature of a town founded by Quakers that is host to a celebrated liberal-arts college.

In any event, Swarthmore has achieved a level of green that most towns would envy. In the last year, more than a quarter of the energy needed to power its homes, buildings, and schools - 27.9 percent - came from renewable sources.

That was enough to rank the borough third in the nation in an Environmental Protection Agency competition among communities vying to buy the largest percentage of green power.

"Wow. That's an incredible number," said Jonathan Edwards, vice president of SmartPower, a national nonprofit marketing firm that promotes renewable energy.

"There is no question that Swarthmore is a poster child for that region in terms of all they do with clean energy."

Blaine Collison, director of the EPA's Green Power Partnership, which sponsored the challenge, said, "Every time I look at Swarthmore, I think, 'We want more of that.' "

Those involved acknowledge that Swarthmore's well-educated and relatively wealthy residents might be an easy sell on clean power. Census data show that 77.2 percent of Swarthmore adults have a bachelor's degree or higher. More than half the households have incomes that exceed $100,000.

Then again, Phil Coleman, an energy analyst at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Research Lab in California (he telecommutes), recalls that in an early organizing meeting, one person challenged, "If we can't do it, who the hell can?"

The race was on.

Swarthmore has a history of environmental actions, its leaders note. It adopted recycling and banned leaf-burning long before most.

In the late 1990s, wind power wasn't on many people's radars. But it was for Thurm Brendlinger, a longtime borough resident who was a wind-power advocate with the Clean Air Council. He started making suggestions.

In 2002, Swarthmore laid claim to being the first municipality in the state to make a pure Pennsylvania-generated wind purchase.

It wasn't a lot of power - only enough to power the traffic lights - but it was a statement, Borough Manager Jane Billings said.