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Major institutions, local businesses and households across Philadelphia are doing it— saving energy, renewing resources and going green. Just this February the city of Philadelphia joined with Recycle Bank and launched a recycling rewards program for residents, set to go citywide by the end of July. Soon in 2012, the city will offer a $4,000 tax credit incentive to 25 eligible local companies that pass the rating for sustainability.
As the city takes greater strides to become more eco-friendly, The Wagner Free Institute of Science in North Central, directly contributes to sustainability efforts, by practicing the principles of environmental consciousness. “It’s a major part of what’s happening now in science. Just thinking about all of that and people’s impact on the environment and possible consequences of what we’ve done,” said Lauren Zalut, a museum educator and the communications coordinator at The Wagner Institute.
Situated at 1700 W. Montgomery Ave., The Wagner Institute was established by prosperous merchant William Wagner in 1855 and is one of the premier science museums and free adult science education programs in the country. The institute focuses on providing free science lessons, classes and field trips to elementary schools in the community as well as offering a free and comprehensive science education to interested students of all ages, backgrounds and academic levels.
A little over three years ago The Wagner’s site manager, Don Azuma, began an all-inclusive approach to making The Wagner more environmentally sustainable. He started out by creating a comprehensive community-recycling program that places 70 percent of The Wagner’s waste into recycling. “Don is helping get people through the door, so that we can talk about all this exciting stuff we’re doing beyond just sustainability. I think it’s great for us to be a model for the community and other science museums and other historic sites as well,” said Zalut.
The program also benefits the North Central community by routinely collecting recyclable contributions from residents in the neighborhood. “I would estimate that about three-quarters of the plastic bottles and glass bottles that we put out to recycling come from the community. It makes a big difference in our immediate neighborhood [and] in how people look at The Wagner when they come and see that there isn’t any garbage here,” said Azuma.
By last January, gas utility prices have decreased nationwide, but they still remain higher locally in Philadelphia at 17.1 percent more than the national average. “We just finished replacing our old furnace downstairs with four, new, high-efficiency boilers. This past winter I just finished weather stripping the windows in this room and it makes a big difference in how much heat this room can hold in the winter time. The heat in this building has never been better—we’re hoping to see significant changes in our gas bill, ” said Azuma.
Over the past five years, the general cost of electricity has increased by more than 30 percent both in Philadelphia and across the rest of the country. A recent news release from the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics notes that in January 2010, consumers in Philadelphia paid 31.5 percent more for electricity than the national U.S. city average.
- To combat Philadelphia’s swelling natural gas and electricity costs, Azuma initiated several internal improvements. “One of the things I wanted to do when I first got here was to lower the operating costs. I was constantly changing the incandescent bulbs because they were always blowing out. So slowly over time I replaced all the incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lighting or LED bulbs. The nice thing about the LED bulbs is that they last a long time and they are extremely energy efficient,” said Azuma.In addition to lasting eight to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, compact fluorescent bulbs generate 75 percent less energy and create 90 percent less heat.
In order to promote the conservation of water, students at the Wagner take a lesson in urban ecology, which teaches them how to conserve water in the city. “I often refer to the fact that we have a rain barrel here at The Wagner and it’s something you could have at your house and a lot of people do know what I’m talking about when I talk about that, so that’s really exciting,” said Zalut.
The Wagner depends on a rather simple but efficient rain barrel and hose irrigation system to constantly provide trees and plants in the courtyard with the water that they need to survive. “We’ve attached [it] to one of our down spouts so it fills up with rain water and we’ve hooked up a hose drip irrigation system to our flower beds. So in the summer time we just open up the tap on our rain barrel and it automatically waters our flower beds,” said Azuma.
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Wagner rain barrel - Since the trees on the perimeter of The Wagner can’t use the rain barrel and hose systems, Azuma employs tree-gators to maintain the appearance of street trees around the property. “They look like big plastic bags that sit at the base of the tree and we just fill them with water. I think it holds about 20 gallons and it slowly drips the water into the ground right at the tree. It’s a much more efficient way of keeping them watered then just taking a hose out or a sprinkler system, ” said Azuma.
Recently, the Wagner just received a $1,500 conservation grant to go towards developing an outside classroom in the courtyard to expand the current set up. “We’re going to be enhancing it with things that attract natural pollinators and there’s going to be food plants out there, butterfly plants. It’s going to be an even better yard than it is now,”said Azuma
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