About UC Green
The mission of UC Green is to promote, coordinate, and support volunteer community greening in University City, West/Southwest Philadelphia neighborhoods. Through partnerships we build community, endorse sustainable practices, and champion environmental stewardship.
Major Accomplishments for the period of Feb. 1998 through July 2008
- Established 501(c)3 non-profit status 2004
- Engaged 5,000 volunteers in over 15,000 hours of community greening
- Planted 2075 trees
- Planted 15,000 bulbs and perennials
- Volunteer hours in labor value $280,000.
- Increased property values by $28 million*
- Developed weekly summer Pruning Club in 2004 and to date, hand-pruned 50 city blocks
- Renewed over 35 residential block streetscapes and reforested 25 blocks of urban street fronts
- Recycled over 34,000 sq. ft. concrete for new tree pits and to reduce storm water runoff
- Conducted an area-wide street tree inventory
- Developed UC Green Corps summer youth employment program in 2006 and increased capacity to care for 300 young trees to 550 per week in 2008
- Created new environmentally sound gardens throughout University City
- 21 large scale tree plantings including schools, recreation centers and public health centers throughout University City, West and Southwest Philadelphia
- 18 smaller scale tree planting events
- Held 62 garden workdays and coordinated custom corporate volunteer projects
- Supported multiple community groups with revitalized greening efforts and block improvement projects in Spruce Hill, Cedar Park and West Shore neighborhoods
- Grew e-mail newsletter list to over 1000 subscribers
- Created greening websites, including one dedicated to an expanding “Urban Arboretum of University City”
- Began five-year strategic planning in 2006. In 2008 the planning has moved to the committee level
- For every $1 spent on projects, raised at least $4 via in-kind contributions
- Operated under budget and annually increased organization’s financial reserves
*Using Wharton Professor Susan Wachter’s research on the additional real estate value provided per tree per residential property of 9%; and University City’s median sale price of $150,000 (per Penn’s cartographic modeling lab data from 2004), the 1,000 additional trees planted by UC Green total $13.5 million in added property values.
» UC GREEN, INC. on-going partnerships
HISTORY
A brief history of UC Green is available here.