Sustainability : For Good

Here's your chance to eat well and eat often, at the third annual A Taste of Grow Pittsburgh this Sunday at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts from 2:00 to 5:00.
 
Featured restaurants at the fundraiser include: Avenue B and Habitat, Salt of the Earth, The Porch at Schenley. E2, Abay, Alma, East End Food Co-op, Legume, Square Café, Root 174, Bar Marco, La Prima Espresso, Habitat, Casbah and Whole Foods.
 
While feasting, guests will be entertained by Chet Vincent and the Big Bend while sipping local wine from Engine House 25 Wines and organic & local brews.
 
The dozen local restaurants at the event have utilized organic produce from Grow Pittsburgh’s urban farming efforts, or fundraising events for the group.
 
Grow Pittsburgh is an urban agriculture organization with "a mission to demonstrate, teach and promote responsible urban food production." The group offers programming and education including the development of community food gardens in the region. It is also known for the Edible Schoolyard program they bring to local elementary schools in Pittsburgh.
 
Tickets are $75 for General Admission and $60 for Members of Grow Pittsburgh available through Showclix or call Grow Pittsburgh at (412) 362-4769.
 

The Student Conservation Association’s Green Cities Corps Fellows have been having an impact on the Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan and other local environmental efforts since 2008, and Fellows’ projects in 2012 are about to bear fruit.
 
Eighteen Fellows have been working in 16 organizations since February, says Fellowship Program Coordinator Miriam Parson. They work with nonprofits but aim to have an impact on businesses, university campuses and neighborhoods as well.
 
Past Fellows have helped the city’s Climate Action Plan gain new capabilities and aided East Liberty Development, Inc., in designing stormwater management projects, from rain gardens to tree planting.
 
This year, one Fellow is aiding the Green Building Alliance; another is managing the Black and Gold City Goes Green campaign with PennFuture; one Fellow is helping Global Links divert unused, surplus health-care materials from the waste stream to Latin American countries and increase its internal sustainability, and a fourth Fellow is helping a consortium of 11 higher-education institutions in Pittsburgh to implement greenhouse gas reductions and sustainability projects.
 
Nearly half of the Fellows – all young professionals out of college, ages 22-30 -- stay in the city and are hired here, says Parson.
 
Over the next few months, local residents will see more evidence of Fellows’ projects, from
Black and Gold City neighborhood blitzes to hand out household sustainability solutions to the finale of the Green Workplace Challenge for local businesses in October, which another Fellow is managing.
 
"We're really feeding into the ongoing green trend in Pittsburgh," says Parson. "We're bringing capacity to Pittsburgh's sustainable future."

Do Good:
Take a look at the Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan and get involved with the Pittsburgh Climate Initiative.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Miriam Parson, Student Conservation Association, Pittsburgh

“When I see a business doing things that don’t immediately respond to their bottom line, that’s a real clear indication that they get it,” says Brian Jensen, senior vice president for civic policy at the Allegheny Conference on Community Development.
 
What they get is the idea that “Smart Growth is Smart Business” – the theme of the city’s 11th annual Smart Growth Conference on Dec. 13.
 
The conference features sessions on innovative finance, blight and abandonment, green infrastructure and the indicators of smart growth. Former Clinton cabinet member Henry Cisneros, head of the CityView institutional investment firm, and Robert Lang, a Fellow of the Urban Land Institute, lead a lengthy list of presenters.
 
To be smart about growth, businesses need to realize that even multi-national corporations are still local to someone. “How that [local] community operates is going to affect their labor force, resourcing of materials, tax climate and regulatory climate,” says Jensen, who also heads the Pennsylvania Economy League of Southwestern Pennsylvania. “The geographical climate they work in will affect their operability and ultimately their profitability.”
 
They’ve also got to take the long view – both in planning and in how they operate today. Building green, for instance, “costs money up front. If a business is willing to make that upfront investment, over time their energy costs are going to be reduced.” However, the smartest businesses realize that going green “is largely an effort to try to reduce the amount of wastewater that goes through our sewers. It really is more of a response to larger community needs.”
 
Besides the Allegheny Conference, the other event sponsors are the Green Building Alliance, NAIOP Pittsburgh Chapter, Pittsburgh Technology Council, Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, Sustainable Pittsburgh, and the Urban Land Institute Pittsburgh District Council.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Brian Jensen, Allegheny Conference on Community Development

A 350-hour bike ride across Indonesia. A "human flood" of people in blue shirts through Cairo. A parade of fuel-free floats through Cape Town. An "Eco-lympic" torch progressing through Rio de Janeiro on foot, skateboard and bicycle.

These are just some of the worldwide activities for Moving Planet day on Sept. 24, created by climate-activist site 350.org, and in which Pittsburgh is being encouraged to participate, thanks to the Black and Gold City Goes Green campaign.

Our take? "Anything that gets [Pittsburghers] away from driving to work alone" will do, says Lauryn Stalter of PennFuture, which is promoting the citywide campaign to get people to take relatively easy and cheap actions to reduce greenhouse gas production. "People can change air quality and address climate change all in one day -- just by changing the way they get around," says Statler.

But at least we're trying it before anyone else -- on Sept. 23. And that's only one of the many campaign activities in the next two months alone.

On Sept. 17, the City Goes Green group teamed with Greener Expressions to hold the Lawrenceville Green Business Blitz, a chance for people to see what the neighborhood is doing to go green, from changing windows and upgrading their lighting to buying sustainable products. Participants received a multitude of energy-saving items, including LED nightlights, shower timers, toilet tummies (which save water in the tank), sink aerators and outlet insulators.

Next up is a Neighborhood Blitz of East Allegheny on the North Side on Oct. 9, giving residents a chance to grab eco-friendly lightbulbs, recycling bags and schedules, cancel their junk mail, recycle old fridges, and find out what else they can do to go green.

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Lauryn Stalter, Black and Gold City Goes Green

Since health-care providers are the biggest employers around -- and since it's never quittin' time at a hospital -- it's sound environmental policy to make their operations as green as possible.

It also makes sense for patients' health, not to mention cost-containment, findings Sustainable Pittsburgh is hoping to promote through their next "Improving Healing Environments: Strategic Environmental Solutions" workshop offered July 21. Representatives of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, UPMC, Global Links, eLoop and elsewhere will address how the industry can apply environmental principles and ideas to its energy use, waste disposal, infection control and cleaning, and operations and facility design.

A survey at Sustainable Pittsburgh's last workshop found that coordinating environmental efforts was the toughest part of the task, followed by the cost and the system-wide resistance to change.

Interest in saving money "opens the door" to going green, says Matthew Mehalik, program manager for Sustainable Pittsburgh and organizer of the five-workshop environmental series, "but this is not the only factor." Green practices can actually improve the quality of patient care and reduce in-hospital errors. It also reduces infections, stress and other negatives.

Pittsburgh is not the leader in this particular aspect of health-care; that's the province of Baltimore's Johns Hopkins and the Cleveland Clinic, Mehalik says. But locally, he adds, "the industry is doing a lot internally that has not often been expressed publicly." That means "getting things in order before making grand public proclamations." He points to the work of UPMC's sustainability coordinator and the construction of its LEED-certified Children's Hospital, in particular. "The efforts have been clearly led by UPMC, and it has been more of a struggle to get other systems on board, but this is changing."

Do Good:

For more details or to register, click here.

Catch video from the first workshop in the series.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Matthew Mehalik, Sustainable Pittsburgh

Downtowners, we know where you'll be eating lunch tomorrow.

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow (Aug. 5), the Toyota Farm to Table Tour will be paying a visit to Market Square. More than a half-dozen local chefs will be offering "bite-sized complimentary treats" that they've created using super-fresh ingredients grown by farmers in our region.

The lineup of award-winning local chefs includes Jason Capps of Bella Sera, Keith Fuller of Six Penn Kitchen, Andrew Morrison of Habitat (at the Fairmont), Mark Swomley of The Carlton, Kevin Sousa of Salt of the Earth (who is also catering the BikeFest VIP bash on Friday night), Sonja Finn of Dinette, Andrew Hebson of Sonoma Grille and Bill Fuller of Big Burrito Group.

Toyota's national summer tour stops at farmers markets across the country to showcase the connection between farmers, chefs, farmers' markets and the communities they serve. They also bring along a few of their hybrid cars (expect to see a 2010 Prius, Highlander Hybrid and/or Camry Hybrid) in hopes of intriguing new customers.

There will be live music and visitors can take home complimentary culinary herbs. An "herb specialist" will be on-hand to pot the plants for visitors and answer questions about gardening. All herb plants are sourced from local vendors at the market.

The Market Square Farmers Market is open every Thursday through Nov. 18, offering everything from hot pierogies and fresh flowers to baked goods and more than 50 types of produce. It is run by Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP).

"There is no better way to showcase the best food choices in Pittsburgh than having local chefs partner with local farmers," said Michael Edwards, president and CEO of the PDP, in a statement about the event. "We're truly honored to host the Toyota Farm to Table Tour during our Market Square Farmers Market because it's a chance for the community to experience top quality, local food in Downtown's newly-renovated town square."


Writer: Melissa Rayworth
Source: Kirsten Graham for Toyota Farm to Table Tour
Image posted by thebittenword.com via Flickr

The annual Bayer Sustainability Camp program kicked off last weekend, giving 15 students from around the globe (including one Pittsburgher) a chance to learn more about the environment and the role they can play in improving it.

When students applied to attend this year's Sustainability Camp, they were asked to write essays about what subjects like sustainability and climate change mean to them, says Rebecca Lucore, executive director of the Bayer USA Foundation, which runs the camp. The goal was to get a sense of how the students approached these issues and also help the students form a vision for what they could gain from the camp.

During their two weeks at Sustainability Camp, the students are working with soil and water samples (see the photo, above, from last year's camp) and will explore Pittsburgh's rivers by canoe and with RiverQuest. And just as they did last year, they will also spend time working alongside scientists at the Bayer campus.

One highlight of this year's program is a visit to Bayer's New "eco-commercial" building. "They'll get to tour the building," Lucore says, "and see a zero-energy building in practice."
 
Just a few days into the camp, one interesting topic has already emerged: Students from Germany were surprised to find that environmental issues, which have been a focus in Europe for decades, have only captured public attention in the U.S more recently. The German students have challenged their American peers on the issue, asking why it's taken Americans longer than Europeans to make the environment a clear priority.

The experiences of these two weeks, including these kinds of challenging conversations, will hopefully send the entire group of students back to their hometowns inspired to continue learning about the environment and discussing it with others.


Writer: Melissa Rayworth
Source: Rebecca Lucore, Bayer USA Foundation
Image courtesy of Bayer USA Foundation

 

The Pittsburgh region has a remarkable abundance of small farms within just a few miles of the city limits. And neighborhoods that don't have farms often host one or more farmers' markets throughout the growing season. But while many Pittsburghers know of one or two nearby farms or markets, we may not realize just how many others are available to us.

The Buy Fresh Buy Local initiative at PASA (Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture) aims to raise the public profile of local growers and help consumers in our region find growers to buy from and locate restaurants that specialize in locally grown food.

Year-round, you can visit their site to learn more about these offerings. But on July 24, there's a special opportunity: Buy Fresh Buy Local's annual Farm Tour is happening all day on that Saturday. Visitors are encouraged to map out their own route (check out the map here). Begin at any of the participating farms (you'll pay a $10-per-carload fee at the first farm you visit) and get a pass that allows admission to all the other farms.

This year's tour includes more than 20 farms featuring spinning and sheep shearing at Wild Rose Farm, a hay wagon ride to visit cows and spring calves at Burns Angus Farm, sustainable living at Quiet Creek Herb Farm, in-depth tours of Pounds Turkey Farm, pick your own berries at Soergels Orchards and cheese-making demonstrations at Hatchtown Road Cheese. Expect kid-friendly activities, fresh samples, hands-on demos and even a few discounts on homegrown products.

"At PASA, we work to promote small farmers and help them with marketing and networking," says Leah Smith, PASA's member services manager for the western region. "And we do consumer education about local foods -- how to find them, appreciate them, connect with local farmers, and really understand where your food is coming from."

Money raised during next weekend's Farm Tour, she says, "helps us continue doing that consumer education."


Writer: Melissa Rayworth
Source: Leah Smith, PASA
Image courtesy of PASA/Buy Fresh Buy Local

This Saturday night, the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association (NMRWA) will celebrate another year of progress at their annual fundraiser.

In lower Frick Park, near the confluence of the Fern Hollow and Nine Mile Run streams, "A Midsummer Night's Storm" will include food and drink from Point Brugge Café and Make Your Mark Artspace & Coffeehouse. Rick Sebak, the Mon River Ramblers, J. Malls and Hi Top Wrangler will be on hand for the festivities.

The goal will be to raise funds for the association's environmental stewardship programs, including the Rain Barrel Initiative and Rain Garden Pilot Project.

One of the environmental challenges in the Pittsburgh area is that rain storms cause runoff that brings chemicals and pollutants from our streets and sewers down into the rivers. The Association has been battling that by introducing rain barrels and teaching homeowners to develop rain gardens to keep rainfall on their own property.

"We now have over 1300 rain barrels just in our watershed alone, which is probably one of the highest densities for a rain barrel program in the country," says Lisa Brown, director of operations and outreach at NMRWA. "Within the watershed, we install and we maintain them. And we continually keep in contact with the rain barrel owners," to create an ongoing relationship of outreach and teaching.

The Rain Garden project is "sort of a separate project because many, many people don't necessarily want to use rain barrels. They are interested in something that is, I guess, more aesthetically appealing," Brown says. "So we teach them to disconnect downspouts and create a rain garden, as part of a suite of options for homeowners."


Writer: Melissa Rayworth
Source: Lisa Brown, NMRWA
Images courtesy of NMRWA

The second-annual Homegrown event at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh offers a big of everything -- it's part rummage sale, part farmers' market, part outdoor concert and part educational event. The focus is on green living, but at heart, this event is about community-building.

There is a real connection between the student population and the wider world of Pittsburgh, says event organizer and Art Institute student Courtney Robinson, especially in parts of the city like Oakland, where many students live. But strengthening that connection is a valuable thing for everyone involved.

After a positive response to last year's Homegrown, students from the Art Institute have planned yet another full day of activities on Thurs., July 29 on their campus. The public is very much welcome, and invited to hear about local sustainable initiatives that explore "how we eat, how we live, how we buy, and how we can change into a much stronger, more sustainable Pittsburgh."

"We'll start at 9 a.m. with the rummage sale," Robinson says, "and that goes until 2 p.m." Proceeds will be donated to student scholarships (last year the sale earned $2,000). In addition, educational workshops and booths hosted by local green businesses and nonprofit organizations, plus the farmers' market, will be running all day.

A local band will take the stage about 5 p.m., along with free food (thanks to the Art Institute's Culinary Club and Slow Foods chapter) and a free raffle for an "Ecocents" booklet, which is a "guide to everything green" in Pittsburgh.


Writer: Melissa Rayworth
Source: Courtney Robinson, Art Institute of Pittsburgh
Image, from last year's Homegrown, courtesy of Art Institute of Pittsburgh


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Environmentally-conscious Pittsburghers were thrilled to find that our city had been chosen to host this year's World Environment Day. Crowds turned out for the various WED events, but there were likely many others who weren't able to break away from work or family obligations to attend the day-long Water Matters! conference on June 3.

On the evening of June 15, the New Pittsburgh Collaborative is offering another chance: Their event, "Liquid Knowledge: The NPC Debrief on How Water Matters! and What You Can Do," will present the highlights of last week's conference and continue the conversation about where we go from here.

The event, happening Downtown at Bricolage (937 Liberty Ave.), will include the premiere screening of the Water Matters! conference video and short recaps of the conference's three panels (water and health, water and energy, and water as an economic driver) given by young professionals who attended them.

Also on the agenda: discussions about what can be done to help address water-related challenges affecting the Pittsburgh region, plus plenty of networking opportunities.

The NPC is a collective of young professional and civic-minded organizations that encourages regional progress through increased communication and partnership among its members.

"One of the key reasons that the NPC exists is to be a collective channel through which the young professional community can unite and engage in issues of widespread regional importance and impact. We thought carefully about how best to support World Environment Day, and decided that leveraging our network of some 25 organizations to expand the impact and reach of the Water Matters! Conference was
exactly the right way to do it," says NPC Co-Chair Abby Sadowsky.

"Liquid Knowledge" is co-presented by NPC partners Global Solutions Pittsburgh, the Green Building Alliance and the Pittsburgh WED Partnership. Register at www.NewPittsburghCollaborative.org (tix $5 in advance, $8 at the door).


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Writer: Melissa Rayworth
Source: Abby Sadowsky, NPC
Image courtesy of NPC

The progress has been solid: Now into its second year, the Black and Gold City Goes Green campaign has helped Pittsburghers keep more than 2 million lbs. of carbon dioxide out of our atmosphere. And in connection with World Environment Day and its focus on water, the campaign will be honoring the winners of their Water Savers Competition this Saturday, June 5, at the Carnegie Science Center.

"We've seen a lot of growth in number of community partners," says Heather Sage, vice president at Penn Future, which runs the program. "Staff and interns have been out in the community... and the reception has been overwhelmingly positive."

But after more than a year of steady progress, "one of the challenges is keeping people engaged," Sage says. "Among the folks who were great guns to get involved right at beginning, some have faded away a little bit. ... Our ongoing challenge will be to keep it fresh for people who already have taken the first steps."

Part of what's worked well has been suggesting small changes that are easy for people to make. But for those who have already taken those steps, what next? There are only so many small "green" adjustments residents can make, Sage says, "before you kind of start to hit those bigger pieces of change."

"Another piece of the effort is to identify synergy that exists within the segments of the Pittsburgh Climate Initiative and cross-pollinate our different efforts," she says. "As we move forward as a coalition, we're looking for more ways community members can be engaged on policy issues on the local level."

"Now that we've gotten awareness, what's phase two? That's a big part of the conversation we're seeing on the horizon."


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Writer: Melissa Rayworth
Source: Heather Sage, Penn Future
Image courtesy of Penn Future/Black and Gold City Goes Green

Chalk up another win-win scenario for Pittsburgh: The 'burgh-based National Center for Non-Profit Excellence is the home of Operation E-Cycle, a program that collects and refurbishes computers, then distributes them to area nonprofits.

In our tech-hungry world, many people replace their computers regularly. "Old" desktop computers and laptops may be just a year or two behind the times, with plenty of years of productivity left in their circuits. These electronics would be welcome additions at a struggling nonprofit that can't afford to buy new equipment, says Lee Hipps, president of the NCNE.

"We want to encourage people, especially if you're the type of person who retires your computer every three to five years, to consider donating it to us," Hipps says. "We'll look at it, see what memory is there, refurbish it, then make it available to a nonprofit."

For people who worry that their old computers contain personal data, Hipps has that covered: "We're going to wipe it clean according to the government requirements for wiping a computer clean," he says, so no old files or data will be passed along to the computer's new owner. 

It's an easy way to make a meaningful contribution to a nonprofit organization, he says, and also an environmentally smart choice. And, making this a triple-win scenario, Hipps points out that the donation is tax-deductible.


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Writer: Melissa Rayworth
Source: Lee Hipps, NCNE
Image posted by Pink Sherbet Photography via Flickr

Each year, the Western Pennsylvania Gardening and Landscaping Symposium and Garden Marketplace draws an enthusiastic crowd of several hundred -- everyone from environmental experts and landscape professionals to avid weekend gardeners and curious first-timers.

But in a year when "urban gardening" and "sustainable landscape" are major buzzwords, this year's symposium is garnering added attention. In past years, only those registered for the symposium were able to buy plants and gardening supplies there. In response to demand, the organizers have opened up the symposium's Garden Marketplace to the public.

The symposium and marketplace are scheduled for Saturday, Apr. 24 at Chatham University. Horticultural experts will be speaking on topics including garden design and installation, new and choice varieties of trees and shrubs, and sustainable landscape management.

Registration is limited. "Last year we had 275 people for the symposium, our largest number ever," says Nancy Knauss of the Penn State Extension of Allegheny County, which organizes the event. "We've really just continued to grow and grow, and typically we have a really good turnout."

The marketplace will be open 8 a.m. till 4 p.m., rain or shine, inside Chatham's Athletic and Fitness Center. Offerings there will include hard-to-find annuals, perennials and shrubs, heirloom vegetable plants and seeds, and garden accessories and tools -- everything a new urban gardener might want for the season ahead.

"There will be heirloom tomatoes for people into vegetable gardening, and companies selling recycled compost bins and rain barrels," Knauss says. "Everything under one roof."


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Writer: Melissa Rayworth
Source: Nancy Knauss, Penn State Extension of Allegheny County
Image posted by Koshyk on Flickr

Last year, the government's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) increased funding for low-income homeowners interested in weatherizing their homes. Around the same time, the Pittsburgh Foundation received funding from the philanthropic consortium Living Cities to help put entry-level workers on the path to "green-collar" careers.

Jane Downing, the Pittsburgh Foundation's Senior Program Officer for Economic and Community Development, saw an opportunity to create jobs local jobs in the business of weatherizing local homes. The Coordinated Weatherization Campaign was born. Since then, the program has created a steady trickle of jobs. And it has also had a broader economic and environmental impact.

"The Coordinated Weatherization Campaign has brought a number of stakeholders together (utility companies, weatherization providers, community-based organizations, local government, foundations, etc.) in order to move toward the common goal of reduced utility bills and energy consumption, as well as comfortable, healthier homes for low-income individuals in Southwestern Pennsylvania," says Lindsay Ruprecht, Sustainable Community Development Coordinator at ACTION-Housing, Inc., which is a major provider of low-income weatherization services in the region.

"The partnerships that have come about due to the CWC have assisted with the expansion and development of other efforts focused on environmental conservation and sustainability in the region," she says. Job creation remains a goal, but an added focus is engaging low-income communities in creating strategies for reducing energy consumption and furthering grassroots communication in neighborhoods.

Although the CWC is working effectively in areas where the conversation about energy conservation had not been going on, Ruprecht says "outreach is also being coordinated along with other conservation-based organizations or networks such as the East End's Urban Green Growth Collaborative (UGGC) and the Hilltop's social service-based Hilltop Alliance."

"We are able to bring strength to the missions of energy efficiency, reduced bills and healthier, more comfortable homes by weaving all of these stakeholders and networks together. The way in which the CWC and UGGC have unified diverse interests has changed the way potential clients are learning about the program and becoming involved in both their own homes' weatherization and their neighborhoods' conservation efforts."


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Writer: Melissa Rayworth
Source: Lindsay Ruprecht, ACTION-Housing
Image by Josh Franzos courtesy of The Pittsburgh Foundation