Green businesses hatching everywhere!
There’s a new crop of business incubators and shared work spaces around the US that are housing some of our current and potential loan recipients, among others. Myself and Jon Blum, our fantastic pro bono consultant, just visited one such space, The Pipeline, in Philadelphia. The view from one of its meeting rooms is Philadelphia City Hall with its beautiful French architecture; this structure remains the world’s tallest masonry building. The Pipeline is full of sustainable design, including the incredible reclaimed wood panel where we got our picture taken.
At the Pipeline, we met with Melissa Lee of The Green Program, an innovative travel company co-founded by Melissa 6 years ago when
she just 19. The Green Program creates and manages environmental study abroad programs for college students — to date there are programs in Iceland, Peru and — yes! — Philadelphia. (You did know that Philadelphia is chock-full of incredible sustainanable green programs on the city level?) The students deepen their knowledge, put it into action, make connections beyond their school, all in a very “real world” setting. The Green Program is helping to cultivate the next generation of environmental leaders. We wish we were young enough to go!
