Philly’s top sustainability official has resigned from Mayor Parker’s administration
The departure comes as a long-running controversy in City Hall related to the city’s use of an incinerator in Chester to dispose of trash is expected to come to a head.
Philadelphia’s top sustainability official has resigned from Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration, leaving a key position vacant as the administration navigates a high-profile revolt in City Council over the environmental impacts of how the city disposes of its trash.
Elizabeth Lankenau, who had served as the director of the Philadelphia Office of Sustainability since 2023, left her role in city government and the Parker administration is searching for a replacement, according to Joe Grace, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office.
Grace did not specify when Lankenau resigned, and it is unclear if Lankenau has accepted a new position. She did not respond to messages seeking comment.
The sustainability office manages a variety of programs related to environmental justice, the city’s response to climate change, and transitioning to clean energy. Christopher Puchalsky, the director of the Philadelphia Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems, has absorbed Lankenau’s duties on an interim basis, Grace said.
The departure comes as a long-running controversy in City Hall related to the city’s use of an incinerator in Chester to dispose of trash is expected to come to a head.
On Nov. 18, City Council’s Committee on the Environment is scheduled to hold a hearing on legislation drafted by the administration to renew its contract with Reworld, a Chester-based waste-to-energy facility where Philadelphia sends about a third of its waste.
The administration cannot enter into a multiyear contract without approval from Council, where it is guaranteed to meet resistance.
Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who leads the committee, has for more than a year pressed the city to end its contract and instead send all its trash to landfills. She and other environmental advocates have cited studies showing that incineration emits pollutants that can cause adverse health effects in surrounding communities.
» READ MORE: Philly City Council returns with dueling plans for the city’s trash
But Lankenau, at a news conference in July alongside top Parker administration officials, said that her office had studied the impacts of trash incineration and that “there is not a clear consensus of the relative health and environmental impacts between incinerating and landfilling.”
This fall, the Parker administration advanced a new, long-term proposal to move the city toward a “zero waste” future.
That plan, outlined in a separate bill introduced by Councilmember Mark Squilla, calls for a “circular waste” system that relies on different techniques for waste disposal entirely, like composting and breaking down organic waste.
A hearing has not yet been scheduled for lawmakers to consider Squilla’s legislation.
