By Julia Lowe and Gabriel Donahue Nature lovers, mark your calendars for Love Your Park Week 2026. One hundred forty park friends groups care for the city’s parks year-round and are calling for volunteers to join the cleanup and beautification days hosted from May 9-17. “I think it’s a great way to be outside with
Morephoto by Ryan Scott Lovin’ Spoonful by Emily Teel At any successful party, guests might remark over their plates, “This is really good. You should sell this!” While many hosts smile and wave off the idea, Kate Hartman followed through. She started her company, Good Spoon Seasonal Foods, cooking grass-fed beef chili that she served
MoreIndustrial design graduate builds sustainable business around transforming broken skateboards into furniture
MoreDisrupting Business As Usual by Peter Frank I rely every day on cooperative businesses owned and controlled by my neighbors and friends. I buy groceries from Kensington Community Food Co-op, source my energy from the Energy Co-op, bank with Philadelphia Federal Credit Union and Sun Federal Credit Union, and drink coffee and dine at W/N
MoreGet a look at our movement's Puritan roots, and the '60s schism between evangelicals and environmentalists.
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Built to Last by Alex Jones Since 1988, R.E.Load Bags has produced ultra-sturdy, infinitely customizable messenger bags, cycling accessories and other gear. But the company’s real strategy for sales and sustainability is playing matchmaker: Listening to what customers want, then bringing the bag of their dreams to life—and creating a product that’s meant to last
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“I love the feeling of taking part in a movement instead of going at it alone,” says Lauren Nagy, who co-founded the community farm Cooperative 518 with her fiancé in 2013. “We wanted to give our friends and peers a chance to be an equal in our vision,” she explains. That vision was to turn
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Nelson Camp has lived at the intentional community Bryn Gweled in Upper Southampton since 1992. “Our house was built by my in-laws after the second World War, so in a sense, the same family has lived here since the mid-’40s,” he says. The community at Bryn Gweled functions as a cooperative, but the community owns
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portrait by Mark Likosky “Anything I list as an accomplishment resulted from collective power and voice. Social justice—whether for land and food sovereignty, education access, housing rights or protection from police abuse—must center on collaboration, shared leadership and community power. And on the crucial fact that Black lives matter—all Black lives.”— AC Amy Laura Cahn
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portrait by Mark Likosky “In the best of all worlds, we could buy local at competitive prices, growing jobs and the local economy.”— PB Sometimes we need a little help from our friends. It’s a simple idea that inspired the creation in 1854 of the Merchants Fund, which was there to step in and help
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portrait by Mark Likosky “Bricks and mortar alone do not build healthy and sustainable communities… the shared vision and engagement of residents into the development of the physical and quality of life planning is the key ingredient to stewardship of the community’s future.” — NR You can’t build a neighborhood or a community without building
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