With Circular Philadelphia’s third birthday just around the corner in June, there was no better way to celebrate than hosting our sixth members meeting on May 19th at the beautiful Bartram’s Garden. A major goal of Circular Philadelphia is to have a lot of fun while doing such important work, so we owe a major thanks to Bartram’s Garden for opening their beautiful landscapes and historic barn to our members so we could enjoy the splendors of Philadelphia’s natural environment while getting down to business.
Our minds were also fueled by the fantastic lunch fare from Kaffa Crossing, which was funded by our generous sponsor Vicinity Energy. When finally getting around to planning a West Philly members meeting, we couldn’t think of a more fitting cuisine than Ethiopian.
In case you aren’t aware, Circular Philadelphia hosts members meetings every fall and spring. This gives our members an opportunity to not only gather with other members in a beautiful setting with great food, but it’s a way for the Circular Philadelphia board and staff to convene members so we can present on the last 6 months of work and hear directly from our members about what they want us to do in the next six months. This structure bears repeating because, as founding member Justin Copenhaver from our partner Urality observed, “I don’t recognize most of the people here, which is a really good thing!”
Granted, Justin missed a few members meetings, but as he pointed out, Circular Philadelphia’s membership has grown significantly over just the past six months. It’s always special to bring new members into our member meeting cycle, which has yielded so many great results over the past three years. And this meeting was no different. Over the course of the members forum after the presentation was given, we gleaned these four key actions that our members would like to see Circular Philadelphia take over the next six months:
- Invest in economic impact research for the circular economy in Philadelphia to make the financial case for why Philadelphia should move toward a circular economy.
- Continue to look for ways to work with City departments to progress the circular economy, e.g. working with the Commerce Department to strengthen the retail sector.
- Lay the groundwork now for circular economy practices in the hotels and hospitality sector in preparation for the many citywide events in 2026.
- Engage our members through the Board’s Equity Committee to establish an environmental justice framework and goals for Circular Philadelphia and its membership.
The most remarkable moment in this cycle is when the staff and board look back at this list six months from now and get to say, “We accomplished all of that and then some.”
We have full confidence that we will be saying that about these four actions when we reconvene in October of 2024. But until then, we will all keep our noses to the grindstone to make sure that we don’t just complete these tasks, but we do so in a way that leaves a lasting impact in Philadelphia. Once again, thanks to all of our members that attended, and to the many more who will collectively help us reach these goals and keep progressing a circular economy in the Greater Philadelphia area and beyond. Oh yeah, and we love coming to our members’ neighborhoods, so become a member today and let us know where we should host the next meeting!
Photo credits: Liyiran Shelly Xia
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