Old City ecommerce shop WebLinc plunked down $40,000 on some new gear for its 100 Market St. location.
No, they didn’t get a dozen vintage pinball machines or gold-dipped handles on all the doors. Rather, they installed 38 solar panels on the roof, which covers 75 percent of the office’s energy needs.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJT34xhj8-C/
In four days, the installation was up and running. Thanks to a 30 percent tax rebate on the technology, the investment will pay for itself in five and a half years, the company says.
“Solar is a personal interest of mine,” says cofounder Darren Hill. “For almost two years I had a small 100W panel powering everything on my desk.”
That small panel was taken down to make room for the larger, more sophisticated system that now lives atop the 133-year-old building, which houses 35 members of the company’s 160-person staff.
Hill says that, while he hopes other startups are incorporating these kinds of green strategies into their operations, he understands they’re not all in a place to make these kinds of investments. “I think everybody’s doing what they can,” Hill said. “It’s not something we could have afforded to do when we were a two-year-old company.”
Besides the installation of the panels, the company has also eliminated those pesky K-cups to reduce waste, switched to LED lighting and installed energy efficient windows. The solar project even got a “badass” write-up on Philly.com.
Join our growing Slack community
Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!
Donate to the Journalism Fund
Your support powers our independent journalism. Unlike most business-media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational contributions.

Got a startup idea? This new Philly venture studio wants to find founders at their earliest steps

Despite Trump's actions and rhetoric, Ukrainian tech workers are laying stakes in the US

How tech and entrepreneurship can boost economic mobility
