After only a year of work on the City’s sustainability framework, Philadelphia was named winner of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Business Civic Leadership Center’s Siemens Sustainable Community Award in the large-community category.

For a better look at the great work that earned the City this award, check out the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability’s First Annual Progress Report, including an update on the tree planting program.

The Center City District has created Plant!Philadelphia to make it easier for you to support the Greenworks goal of planting 300,000 new trees by 2015.

Plant!Philadelphia gives individuals and businesses the opportunity to participate directly in the effort to add healthy street trees within the boundaries of the Center City District or replace damaged ones and sustain a routine maintenance schedule.

Donations to Plant!Philadelphia are tax-deductible and can be made online or by mail.

Mayor Nutter presented his Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Address to members of City Council last week.  We’ve looked over the proposed budget to see how it would affect the Next Great City (NGC) actions, and this is what we observed regarding trees:

Parks and Trees-  A proposed $1 million increase in capital funds for tree planting would support Next Great City’s tree planting goal. An additional $2.5 million for the Department of Parks and Recreation's operating budget for new staff will be a boon for fostering healthy parks with improved maintenance.

City Launches Online Carbon Calculator

As part of the City of Philadelphia’s effort to become the greenest city in America and meet the Greenworks goal of planting 300,000 new trees by 2015, the Mayor's Office of Sustainability launched Erase Your Trace, an on-line tool developed by the U.S. Forest Service, that will allow Philadelphia's residents and businesses to calculate their carbon emissions and then offset them by making a donation to the Fairmount Park Conservancy for local tree planting.

Greenworks Incorporates Next Great City Recommendation

Greenworks, Philadelphia's sustainability framework, incorporates and expands upon the Next Great City tree recommendation by calling for 300,000 trees to be planted by 2015 in Target 11.

Budget Allocation for Trees

Mayor Nutter has committed $1 million in the FY 2009 budget to help meet his goal of planting 25,000 trees over the next five years. This money is allocated through the Fairmount Park budget, but additional funds from other sources are also being sought.

Tree Information

The Fairmount Park Commission is responsible for all street trees, those that are not onprivate property. You can get more information from them on how to request a tree and how to care for existing ones through their website http://www.fairmountpark.org/StreetTree.asp

There are also two great non-profit programs that do tree planings and maintenace: Treevitalize (www.treevitalize.net) and Tree Tenders 
(www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org).