Groupon launches loyalty program in Philly to keep merchants happier: Links

• Now it’s time to have a party [Yikestopia] — Fishtown web dev firm Yikes Inc. is hosting an open house next Friday to check out its recently completed LEED-certified rehab on Girard Avenue, featuring Michael Nutter. Read our coverage here.
• Welcome to N3rd Street [Dangerously Awesome] — Alex Hillman thinks his section of Old City has something interesting brewing
• Groupon Rolls Out Loyalty Program to Try to Make Merchants Happier [All Things Digital] — Launching in Chicago and Philadelphia this month, notes Philly Tech News
• Kids Dungeon Adventure: An RPG for the Little Ones, Made Just Outside of Philly  [Geekadelphia]

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Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Buildings: update from U.S. Dept. of Energy project [VIDEO]

Original plans for the GPIC Navy Yard headquarters. Yes, there will be a roof.

Nearly a year since plans were first announced for a federally-funded, $129 million energy efficiency research initiative at the Navy Yard,  action is beginning to take root.

The Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Buildings, a consortium of efficiency-minded institutions led by Penn State University, is charged with, through this initial five-year phase, developing strategies to better retrofit buildings toward energy efficiency.

That includes technology, methods and workforce, says Christine Knapp, who is handling public and client outreach for GPIC. It’s a national pilot project headquartered in what the City of Philadelphia hopes to make a hub of innovation.

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Yikes Inc. to open its new LEED-certified Fishtown offices Aug. 1, seeks tenant

Before, during and after photos of the front of the Girard Avenue LEED-certified building of Yikes Inc.

Come Aug. 1, the co-founders of web development firm Yikes Inc. will unveil their biggest yet, and it doesn’t have anything to do with a website.

Tracy and Mia Levesque, who started doing pro bono web work in 1994, are close to seeing the completion of the complete LEED-certified, rehabilitation of 204-206 East Girard Avenue in Fishtown.

Currently, Yikes is seeking a company to lease 206 Girard, next to 204, which will be the web shop’s headquarters.

“The majority of building materials will be reclaimed or recycled including 90 percent reclaimed interior doors, 100 percent reclaimed flooring materials, 90 percent reclaimed framing materials and 100 percent recycled drywall. Waste removal is considered an important part of the strategy, so the majority of all construction waste is being recycled or repurposed,” according to a press release.

Philadelphia could lose $149M in federal funding: Links

• Penn freshman’s soon-to-launch microfinance site among Inc.’s Coolest College Startups [Inc] PoverUp from Charlie Javice H/T Keystone Edge
• SugarHouse official says casino building its names database [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• Philadelphia could lose $149M in fed funding [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• Call to Action : Mandatory Paid Sick Leave Bill Moves! [Chamber blog] — Chamber of Commerce is opposing City Council legislation that requires Philadelphia employers to offer paid sick leave
• From your driveway to China: Tracing the path of a recycleable in Philly [Newsworks]
• Philadelphia: Prime Meridian Between 1749 & 1816 [Geekadelphia]
• Save the Pennsylvania Tax Incentive for Filmmakers [Geekadelphia]
• Pennsylvania not on LEED list, but Philadelphia improving [Philadelphia Business Journal]

Three ways your web development shop can be more eco-friendly: Yikes Inc.

A mock up of what the new Yikes offices on Girard Avenue in Fishtown could look like.

Tracy and Mia Levesque say they first started a so-called triple bottom-line company because they were selfish.

And, for them, Yikes Inc., their web design firm in Northern Liberties that is waiting on the completion of new LEED-certified offices in Fishtown, is keeping them happy.

“We wanted to create a company that we wanted to work for,” says Mia. “A lot of the things that make a socially resposible business starts with how you treat your employees, it’s about treating people first then profit.”

So, while the couple has built a web design shop that recently dropped a Penn Medicine Livestrong campaign site and has an e-commerce platform launching for another client soon, when you chat with the pair, they seem to be just as excited to talk about construction.

Specifically the construction of their new LEED-certified offices on Girard Avenue in Fishtown, which, when completed this July, just might be the first LEED rehab in the state. And the four apartments above will be among the first such designated rental spots in all of Philadelphia.

That puts them in a fine place to suggest how your small business can take smaller steps to being a bit more green-friendly, before you’re ready to buy a couple rowhomes for $348,000 and renovate them for $800,000, including architecture, certification and other soft costs.

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Comcast Roundup: Comcast Center tallest U.S. LEED building and squabbles with Verizon

One particular company in our region garners more news coverage than any other by far: Comcast, of course.

It isn’t the region’s largest employer, nor is it even the biggest or most profitable. It just makes a lot more noise. While we cover some of it and hope to do more, a lot of that noise isn’t worth much more than a sentence or two. But much of it is worth following, and we bet many of you readers would like to, so we’re going to sort everything you need to know.

This is the Comcast Roundup, what may or may not become a regular department of ours (we don’t make promises we can’t keep, except to our illegitimate children).

• The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that the Comcast Center, the tallest building in Center City, has garnered another distinction — the tallest LEED-certified building in the country.

Read more on the company’s continued battles with Verizon, NFL Network, how Comcast might be defending your right to not pay more for heavy Internet use and more.

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