Civic leaders, journalists discuss Philly’s clean-and-green progress at virtual event
Screenshot from EVEV's 2nd Community Conversations event, held virtually on January 27, 2026. Clockwise, from top left: Erica Atwood, Fairmount Ventures; Zoraida Cordero, Sustainable Business Network; Shari Hersh, Trash Academy; Julie Hancher, Green Philly; Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, 3rd District City of Philadelphia, Tamara "P.O.C." Russell, Revive Radio + Revive Media
By Jared Council
Philadelphia City Council member Jamie Gauthier said at a virtual event Tuesday that she's pleased with the progress the City of Philadelphia has made on its clean-and-green initiatives—albeit that the progress hasn’t yet been evenly distributed across the city.
She lauded the fact that City Council advanced roughly $100 million during the first year of Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration to kickstart sustainability efforts, including establishing the city’s new Office of Clean & Green. She also cited initiatives like twice-weekly trash pickup and district-designated cleaning crews as points of progress on the "clean" side.
Meanwhile, “green” efforts like tree-planting are still in progress.
“These initiatives aren't perfect,” Gauthier said. “They're not completely mature, yet. They're not even all citywide. But I think it's notable that the mayor has held this up as a key part of her platform.”
Gauthier’s comments came Tuesday during Every Voice, Every Vote's second installment of its Community Conversations series. The theme for this event was Clean and Green, focusing on the efforts Parker has underway to advance beautification and environmental sustainability in Philadelphia.
The panel was rounded out by other civic leaders and journalists whose work focuses on the area. The wide-ranging conversation touched on issues such as illegal dumping, environmental racism and funding cuts for environmental causes.
Shari Hersh, founder of environmental justice organization Trash Academy, said there's been a noticeable change in how the city deals with illegal dumping after years of focusing solely on cleaning. She said, “cleaning doesn’t end dumping,” and that she’s encouraged by the creation of the illegal dumping task force to help address what she said has been a decades-long problem.
“This pivot to actually talking about illegal dumping, to introducing enforcement—I think these are significant moves in the right direction.” Hersh said.
Zoraida Cordero, executive director of the Sustainable Business Network of greater Philadelphia, said the issues related to trash, blight and pollution are deeply intertwined with how nearby residents experience life—including health, public safety and economic opportunity.
“So unfortunately, when you're not assessing how an individual's community is directly affecting that individual's psyche and connection to their day to day,” Cordero said, “you're going to miss out on opportunities to create change.”
The intersection of the environment and racism emerged at several points of the discussion. This included the correlation between litter and redlining maps; heat zones in neighborhoods with little or no tree canopy; and "green gentrification," the process in which new green spaces raise property values and displace long-time residents.
The panelists acknowledged the potential issue of green gentrification, which was the focus of a 2020 study by researchers at Temple University. But a few, including Gaultier, said addressing the lack of canopy in neighborhoods that need it should not prevent addressing any gentrification that may result.
Philadelphia's contract with trash incineration company Reworld in Chester also came up during the discussion, a contract that Gauthier has said led to poor health outcomes for Chester residents.
"Chester is the worst case of environmental racism I've ever seen," said Gauthier, who introduced the Stop Trashing Our Air Act last fall to end the contract. She postponed a vote on the bill last week amid job loss concerns from proponents of the contract.
“It sometimes can be very hard to make the argument around people's health and welfare that you can't directly see, ... particularly when it bumps up against economics,” Gauthier said. "But we're not giving up.”
Julie Hancher, founder and editor at environment-focused publication Green Philly, said she noticed in recent years that some environmental groups and activists “have felt hopeless” amid funding cuts and policy changes at the federal and state levels. But she said she’s encouraged by their drive to keep collaborating.
“Some of these efforts take years. Some are instant wins,” Hancher said. “But knowing the long-term goal, I get so excited when [I see] community thinking of how to help each other.”
Tamara "P.O.C." Russell, a Philadelphia journalist and host of the weekly show ecoWURD on WURD Radio, said it's important to keep educating Philadelphians about the connection between the environment and their lives. And she highlighted the some of the grassroots groups and individuals who have been doing the legwork over many years to affect environmental change.
“Those are the types of stories that we also have to tell,” she said about the activists. “Because a lot of people ... only see the successes. But when it comes down to the green industry, it's very hard to get success easily.”