On Thursday, April 14, the Department of Commerce released a report prepared by policy research firm Econsult Solutions, highlighting the impact PHL's Taking Care of Business Clean Corridors Program (TCB) has had in achieving four key program objectives in 2021.
- Making Philadelphia's neighborhood business districts cleaner.
- Creating an attractive environment for shoppers promotes the economic success of nearby businesses.
- Create job opportunities for Philadelphians.
- Build the capacity of local small businesses and organisations to provide cleaning services.
About TCB
Launched in 2020 with the support of City Council Member Sherrell Parker, the TCB program expanded and enhanced the existing Business District Cleanup Program administered by the Department of Commerce, which provided funding to organizations to remove litter from sidewalks within Philadelphia's business districts.
The increased funding strengthens existing cleaning services in the city's busiest and most littered commercial districts, and for the first time brings significant cleaning services to high-traffic commercial districts.
As a result of TCB, the number of groups providing cleanup services has increased from 19 to 39, and the number of corridors cleaned has skyrocketed from 49 to 85. The Philadelphia Streets Department supports TCB by providing dedicated crews and trucks that pick up the daily bags of trash collected by TCB groups.
TCB cleanup is carried out by small teams of uniformed cleaning ambassadors stationed along regular cleaning routes designated by the City and local community organizations, some of which employ their own staff to carry out the cleanups, while others contract with private cleaning companies.
TCB Cleaning Ambassadors will earn a minimum wage of $15 per hour and have paid workforce training opportunities to equip them to perform their duties and advance in their careers.
Impact of TCB
The result? Cleaner aisles, happier stores and shoppers, quality jobs and more opportunities for local cleaning companies. Some notable findings from the report include:
Cleanliness Survey Results
- In 62 percent of TCB cleanup areas, litter levels were manageable, with an average score of 1-2 on a four-point litter index.
- TCB crews removed 170,258 bags of garbage from TCB corridors, which equates to 14,188 garbage bins, with an average of 652 bags collected citywide on a normal cleaning day.
- Observations conducted in the spring and fall of 2021 found that the number of TCB blocks where construction waste was dumped had halved from 67 to 34. This indicates that TCB workers are taking great care in removing construction waste and that their work is helping to deter individuals from dumping in the first place.
Impact on nearby businesses
- 91 percent of shoppers say they would visit a commercial establishment more often if it was kept clean.
- 95 percent of employers surveyed believe TCBs are effective.
Impact on the workforce
- The program employs 200 TCB Cleaning Ambassadors, each earning a program wage of at least $15 per hour.
- A survey of TCB’s three largest provider organisations estimated that more than half of TCB cleaning ambassadors have been formerly incarcerated.
- 142 Cleaning Ambassadors participated in free online employee training and achieved the widely recognized OSHA-10 workplace safety certification.
Impact on cleaning companies
- TCB helped four for-profit, minority-owned cleaning companies based in Philadelphia expand their operations, increasing the value of city contracts between the four companies from $221,000 in 2020 to $1.74 million in 2021.
Reporting process
These striking findings come from information collected over months on the ground. Econsult surveyed 248 TCB corridor business owners to gather their opinions on the program's effectiveness. They also surveyed 508 shoppers at 22 locations across the city to gauge their perceptions of corridor cleanliness and how clean sidewalks affect their willingness to shop on their neighborhood's main street.
The Department of Commerce and Econsult also engaged Intersect, a Philadelphia-based Black-owned project management firm, to walk the streets and rate litter on a scale of 1 to 4 along all 85 TCB corridors to calculate the Litter Index. Intersect assessed every block cleaned by TCB crews once in spring 2021 and twice in fall 2021 to get an accurate quantification of the program's efforts to keep sidewalks clean. As we all know, one windy morning on trash collection day can litter a block with far more litter than normal. Assessing every block twice over two seasons took extra effort to ensure the most accurate findings.
Advance
TCB is a critical investment by the City towards the economic recovery of Philadelphia's neighborhood business districts and improving the quality of life for nearby residents and shoppers. The findings from the 2021 report will help the Department of Commerce fine-tune the TCB program to further improve performance in the future. For example, the block-by-block litter assessment will inform future strategic investments, and actionable feedback collected from Cleanup Ambassadors will help shape workforce training offered in the future.
It's time to celebrate
The Department of Commerce and elected officials plan to recognize the hard work and great accomplishments of all 200 TCB Cleaning Ambassadors at a pep rally scheduled for Earth Day, April 22, from 10-11:30 a.m. at the MLK Recreation Center in Lower North Philadelphia.
Review the full TCB 2021 report here to help your business: The report’s technical appendix will be published on the Department of Commerce’s TCB webpage in the coming weeks.
