SEEDS of Northeastern Pennsylvania

Empowering sustainable living in our communities.

Thanks to donors like you, SEEDS will be able to continue strengthening energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainable technologies adoptions in Northeastern Pennsylvania through the programs listed below. Please support this work that is primarily run by volunteers.

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Energy Efficiency

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Our Home Energy Efficiency program encourages local home owners to save energy by getting energy assessments done by SEEDS volunteers and high school interns. This program allows low income families to save money on their energy bills and provided the student interactive, hands-on experience that can be used in their future lives and careers.  Through these assessments we were able to identify inefficiencies in the residents’ homes and compiled specialized reports for each home with suggestions on improving the overall energy efficiency and ways to lower energy costs. In our most productive year, 36 families saved a total of over 114,000 kWh of electricity, equal to about $16,000 in electric bills and 85 tons of CO2 curbed from the atmosphere! By supporting SEEDS, you support real progress toward a carbon-free future in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
With your donation, SEEDS will continue to provide educational workshops and assessments such as these, encouraging local residents to reduce energy and materials consumption and save money. Your financial support maintains SEEDS's impact in the community.

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Renewable Energy

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Our volunteers present a DIY Solar Workshop each fall. Through this program, regular people learn, hands-on, how to install solar PV technology while minimizing the cost. SEEDS regularly conducts free solar PV assessments, as well as, hands-on training workshops on solar photovoltaics, solar thermal, and small-scale wind. These trainings provided more than 60 local contractors, residents and business professionals with hands-on installation experience and top of the line training in renewable energy. Your gift will help us educate community members to make an informed choice about when and how to install solar.

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Sustainable Living 

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In 2023, our wonderful volunteers have spearheaded the first-ever Hempcrete Workshop in NEPA! Hemp and lime based bio composite insulation, known as “hempcrete”, can be produced sustainably from a highly renewable resource that sequesters carbon as it grows. The resulting insulation is carbon negative, yet also has considerable thermal, acoustic and fire resistance properties. This material can be incorporated into walls, floors and even roofs. Jami

e Stunkard of Nature's Grace and other SEEDS volunteers built a hempcrete building at a residential site in Prompton, PA to be used as a example for potential future buildings, demonstrating the viability of this material. This event included a hands-on workshop, as well as a multi-day seminar extensive seminar headed by renowned hemp business owner Cameron McIntosh. This is only possible because of the community support such as this NEPA Gives event. We also have been focusing on creating content for our newsletters and social media accounts that goes deeply into energy related topics. Our long-time volunteer and renewable energy specialist has been including practical and insightful articles on energy related matters in each carefully crafted newsletter. This type of accessible education moves people. Considering how much information people get online, this is a great opportunity to share the know-how on energy matters. The 2022 Farm & Chef event held at the Cooperage on October 2 was a culinary conquest and celebratory success, where attendees enjoyed farm to table small plate delights prepared by chefs from local restaurants using produce grown on local farms. In all, the event hosts SEEDS, Wayne County Grown, and PASA raised about $8,000 toward their local agriculture and sustainability mission. We would not have been able to accomplish all this without our community's support. Because of the financial support of our community, we are able to innovate, organize, and execute events such as this one.  

Our love for books and recycling brings together volunteers from all over the region to host the SEEDS Free Book Share.  Over the past several years, this event has relocated 300,000 pieces of media, and many went to new homes and families here in NEPA. It is one of the single largest recycling events in our area that prevents all of the books from going to the landfill. Check out this video on the event from 2025! 

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