3E Links readers are early adopters of sustainable policies, products, and practices, and the people who educate their friends and family about the benefits of sustainable development. Be sure to pass your issue of 3E Links along to friends and colleagues. Subscribe by e-mailing info@sustainablepittsburgh.org

Events

Resources

SAVE THE DATE

8th annual SWPA Smart Growth Conference

"Rebuilding Sustainable Downtown and Suburban Centers"

Friday, May 16
Downtown Pittsburgh
Presented by Sustainable Pittsburgh and Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission
Keynote speaker: Christopher Leinberger
(details to follow)

Christopher B. Leinberger is a metropolitan land use strategist, developer, teacher, consultant and author helping to make progressive development profitable. He is a founding partner of Arcadia Land Company, a real estate development firm serving to create walkable communities in harmony with nature.

Leinberger is a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution focusing on research and practices to help transform traditional and suburban downtowns to places that provide “walkable urbanism." He is also a professor and director of the Graduate Real Estate Program at the University of Michigan which focuses on downtown and suburban town center revitalization, transit-oriented development, new urbanism, and conservation development.

Continued below

Resources Continued

"Creating Happy, Green Communities in the 21st Century - Intro to Cohousing"

Sunday, January 20
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Squirrel Hill Library, corner of Forbes and Murray Ave. Free parking under the library.
Register: TPCHG@aol.com or 412-963-1971
Sponsored by the Pittsburgh Cohousing Group

A FREE introduction to Cohousing in Pittsburgh and its history. Learn about creating, building and living in Pittsburgh's first Cohousing Community with sustainable features including: green building materials, energy efficient homes, shared resources, ecologically responsible community design, and residents committed to cooperative neighborhood living. Learn more about this community of diverse backgrounds, ages and families.

Detention Basins Gone Wild

Thursday, January 24
5:30 pm Social [cash bar]
6:30 pm Dinner
7:00 pm Presentation
Location: Engineer’s Society of Western Pennsylvania, 337 Fourth Avenue, Pittsburgh, 15222; (412) 261-0710
Cost: $40.00 for ASCE members; $45.00 for non-members; $10.00 for student members
Contact: Jason McBride, (412) 922-5575, jmcbride@gfnet.com
DINNER RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED – PLEASE RSVP BY FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2008

Communities typically require site development projects to provide detention facilities to control the rate of post-development storm water discharge from the project site. The design of detention facilities is complex, considering the interactions of storm water runoff, soil infiltration, vegetation sustainability, and downstream conditions. If the facility should require maintenance or fail after the development is constructed, the repairs to the detention facility are often the responsibility of a homeowners association or left to the community.

Hosted by the ASCE Pittsburgh Section and the Environmental & Water Resources Institute, this presentation by Shawn W. Arden, PE, CFM of ms consultants, inc., will discuss four failed detention basins and the multiple retrofit solutions for each condition. The failure modes to be discussed include: inadequate spillway with overflow impacting a high quality jurisdictional wetland downstream of the basin, unsustainable vegetation due to prolonged water drawdown, sedimentation of a dog-legged inflow channel, and a leaking wet basin.

Women Wanted to Run for PA Office

The Winning Edge
January 25-27, 2008
Chatham University, Oakland
Tuition fee: $200 (Covers registration, all instructional materials, and meals) Scholarships may be available to assist in the cost of registration, travel or childcare.

The Winning Edge Campaign School is about using both art and science to achieve victory on Election Day. Sponsored by the Pennsylvania Center for Women, Politics, and Public Policy at Chatham University (the Center) and the Pennsylvania Women’s Campaign Fund, the school will be held January 25-27, 2008. This unique training opportunity is ideal for both women interested in running for office and those who want to focus on running political campaigns…it teaches the skills needed to gain the Winning Edge. http://pcwppp.org/images/pdfs/campaign/winning%20edge%20reg%20form08.pdf

10th Annual Summit Against Racism

"The Power of One: A Commitment to Individual and Collective Action"
Saturday, January 26
8:00 am - 4:00 pm
E. Liberty Presbyterian Church, 116 S. Highland Ave., East Liberty, 15206
http://www.blackandwhitereunion.org/

Don’t miss this exciting day of workshops, art, music, food, and networking. It is a wonderful opportunity to see what impact individuals can have on ending racism in Pittsburgh. Too often individuals feel powerless, with no ability to affect the conditions around them. This is a “victimization mentality” which offers no access to power and brings about no change. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., around whose birthday this annual event is planned, demonstrated the event's theme, “the power of one.”

Contractor/Consultant training for PA Home Energy Program

BPI Training
January 28 - February 1, 2008
8:30 am - 4:30 pm
Fee: BPI training is $1000 and also includes testing
Washington and Jefferson College, Washington PA
For more information, please contact Kathy Greely at (814) 558-8082 or kgreely@psdconsulting.com.
www.pahomeenergy.com/events2.html

PA Home Energy is announcing another round of training for Building Professionals seeking to participate in the PA Home Energy program. Limited to 10 participants per class. To attend the BPI training, you must have already taken the Rater test. A percentage of the cost of the training will be refunded upon completion.

Rising energy prices and environmental concerns have increased consumer, professional and trade interest in green building technology and energy efficiency. In response to this combination of need and demand, the West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund (WPPSEF) has developed "PA Home Energy(TM) to help connect consumers with energy consultants and service providers who can provide high quality green energy services.

“Convention on the Global Commons”

Tuesday, January 29
5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Location: Connan Auditorium in the University Center
Carnegie Mellon University, Oakland
Admission is free

Carnegie Mellon University, along with its sponsors, is hosting a series of four public lectures on themes that explore connections between the food that is grown and eaten, local markets, the potential for thriving local economies and global social equity. The first lecture features Dr. James Quilligan, U.S. Coordinator for the Global Marshall Plan; Managing Director, Centre for Global Negotiations, Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Quilligan has been an analyst and administrator in the field of international development since 1975. The Centre for Global Negotiations and the Marshall Plan Initiative have launched a multi-stakeholder consultation process focusing on a broad range of global development issues including food security, sustainable agriculture, and fair trade. They maintain that bi-lateral policies based on domestic security interests such as agricultural subsidies and trade protectionism are on a collision course with the interests of the global community for multinational cooperation, justice, sustainability, and peace. Mr. Quilligan is presently involved in the planning of the 2010 international conference, Convention on the Global Commons.

Post-lecture Breakfast with Dr. James Quilligan

Wednesday, January 30
9:00 am to 10:30 am
Location: Rangos 2, University Center
Carnegie Mellon University, Oakland
Admission: Businesses- $25, Non-profits/Non-Carnegie Mellon students, faculty and professionals- $15, Carnegie Mellon members- Free
RSVP by Friday, January 25, 2008 at (412) 268-1125

Free Complete Streets Web Seminar

Wednesday, January 30
3:45 pm - 6:00 pm
Room 301, City County Building
414 Grant Street, Downtown Pittsburgh
RSVP to Jackie Crail at Jacklyn.Crail@city.pittsburgh.pa.us if you plan on attending.

This web Seminar is being conducted by the American Planning Association, funded by Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development (PPND), and hosted by the City of Pittsburgh’s Bureau of Transportation and Engineering. COMPLETE STREETS are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users. States, cities and towns are asking their planners, engineers and designers to build road networks that welcome all citizens. The American Planning Association (APA) will be providing speakers familiar with the implementation of Complete Street policies and projects accompanied by a power point slide presentation. Following the presentation there will be an opportunity for Q and A and a discussion of Complete Streets potential in Pittsburgh. (For AICP members, 1.5 CM are available.)

FHLBank Pittsburgh to hold Affordable Housing Program Workshop in Monroeville

Thursday, January 31
Radisson Hotel, Monroeville, PA
9:00 am - Noon
Register: http://www.fhlb-pgh.com/ahp_workshop.html

FHLBank Pittsburgh is holding eight workshops within its district to provide an overview of the Affordable Housing Program (AHP). All potential applicants are encouraged to attend one of the workshops as important changes have been made to AHP for 2008. Most notably, the maximum grant amount has been increased from $500,000 to $650,000, hopefully making it easier for sponsors to cover any gaps in their project financing. Continental breakfast will be served.

For more information about the Affordable Housing Program and the 2008 AHP funding rounds or any other community investment product, please visit www.fhlb-pgh.com and go to the “Housing & Community” link. FHLBank Pittsburgh can also be reached at (800) 288-3400.

Green$ense Conference

Wednesday, March 5
7:30 am - 3:45 pm; Green building tour at 4pm
David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown Pittsburgh
Registration fees vary
Visit the conference website for more details.

Green$ense, hosted by the Green Building Alliance, is a one-day conference highlighting strategies in green building featuring breakout sessions and case studies with nationally recognized experts. Exhibit booths displaying green building products and an afternoon tour of Bakery Square is also available. The event features the Shades of Green Leadership awards recognizing Western Pennsylvanians who have contributed to the environmental transformation of the region.

Climate Change Uncertainties: Opportunities for Business Innovation?

Thursday, March 27
Four Points by Sheraton Pittsburgh North, 910 Sheraton Drive, Mars, Pennsylvania 16046
Contact Jerry Swart at (412) 262-6291 - jerry.swart@fedex.com or John Quinlisk at (412) 503-4537 - John_Quinlisk@URSCorp.com with any questions.

Three of Pittsburgh’s business, engineering and environmental professional organizations are coming together to convene a regional conversation about climate change, its impacts and responses. Climate change, global warming, greenhouse gases, carbon footprint--all of these terms and issues continue to appear in conversations in the media. Many of these conversations are heated and controversial. One thing is clear about this situation: these issues will present challenges to businesses and individuals, simply because of the degree of interest people have in the topics and resulting worldwide concern and debate. Interest in climate change topics has already prompted foreign, federal, and state governmental considerations and actions.

To meet these challenges, the Pittsburgh section of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE), and the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI), in association with the Allegheny Mountain section of the Air & Waste Management Association (AWMA), and Sustainable Pittsburgh’s Champions for Sustainability (C4S) network invite the region’s business, engineering, and environmental professionals to a one-day seminar focusing on climate change.

Resources

Competitive Advantage on a Warming Planet

Companies that manage and mitigate their exposure to climate-change risks while seeking new opportunities for profit will generate a competitive advantage over rivals in a carbon-constrained future. Offered here is a guide for identifying the ways in which climate change can affect your business and for creating a strategy that will help you manage the risks and pursue the opportunities. Examples are cited from very different companies-—from Caterpillar to Wal-Mart to Goldman Sachs—-that are responding to the various forces unleashed by the growing awareness among business leaders and consumers of the importance of climate change. The message: It’s not enough to do something; you have to do it better—-and more quickly—-than your competitors.

EU to tighten restrictions on biofuels

The European Commission said Monday it would propose tighter restrictions on biofuels next week amid mounting concerns that the energy source can cause unintended environmental and social problems. . .concerns have risen about forests being cut to grow biofuels and soaring food prices caused in part by farmland being used for energy crops rather than growing food.

More

Worldwatch's Prugh discusses 2007 trends, says environmental issues driving global economy

Each year, the Worldwatch Institute releases a report analyzing the year's environmental trends. This year's report focuses on the "greening" of industry. During today's OnPoint, Tom Prugh, co-director of Worldwatch's State of the World 2008 report, explains why environmental issues are driving the global economy. He discusses what lies ahead for carbon markets and also addresses how local governments can engage communities for a more sustainable world. . ."Well, because it's an unmistakable and an extremely important trend. The bad news, that I think everybody is aware of at some level, is that by now the global economy has grown to be so large and so powerful that it's actually begun to undermine the ecological capacity of the earth to support the economy and us. And the poster child example of that is climate change. The good news is that these problems have unleashed a wave of innovations from virtually all sectors of the economy that are beginning to meet these challenges. And which, if they were scaled up and spread around the world, could put us on the path to true sustainability. That's why the report is so upbeat this year."

U.S. Presidents' Saudi Ritual Nearly Obsolete

President Bush appealed to Saudi leaders this week to increase the flow of oil--to help to keep prices under control. It's a ritual for U.S. presidents--and one that NPR Senior News Analyst Ted Koppel says is almost obsolete.

Pioneering a Sustainable Paper Industry

With no access to capital and under threat from competition with deep-pocketed multinationals such as Boise Cascade, management started exploring ways to reduce costs and innovate with its product mix in order to stay in business. . .For example, rather than run their boiler on natural gas or oil, they converted to biomass to take advantage of their proximity to inexpensive abundant sources of wood-waste that otherwise would be slash-burned or taken to landfill. Instead of buying electricity, they bought two turbine generators to make their own. Earlier this year they added a third with the goal of not only making their own energy but selling it, too. At the end of November, they were generating more energy than they needed.

Emerging Market Companies Win by Using Innovative Strategies for Sustainable Business, a Joint IFC and Sustainability Report Reveals

Richard Caines, who led the work for IFC, said, "Sustainability is 'home grown' with these companies. Unlike many companies in the North, they did not develop their sustainable business models as a reaction to outside criticism, but rather because they could see the business case. The goal was to create new value, rather than protect existing value. Sustainability originated from a different place."

Green-car market battle lines drawn at Detroit Motor Show

The Detroit Motor Show has put a spotlight on the looming battle for supremacy in the fast-growing market for green cars, especially between US and Asian auto makers. . .Among the US auto manufacturers, GM has launched an offensive in the green car market--even as it has joined the others in resisting tighter regulations on emissions.

PittsburghTODAY regional indicators

The PittsburghToday Web site has significantly changed its home page to two purposes. First, we have established a new Region's Forum that will be updated regularly to give more prominence to differences of opinion about the appropriateness of public policy initiatives and particular regional indicators....Inside this site you'll find benchmarked indicators on key economic, political and cultural components of the "City-state of Pittsburgh"-the twenty-two counties in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia surrounding the city. We're working to foster a more holistic and accurate view of our interdependent region.so we all may move forward together.

Carbon labels – A green mark too far?

The Carbon Trust's experiment with carbon labels could transform the behaviour of UK companies and consumers. But there are doubts hanging over the scheme. Labels extolling a product's ethical virtues are nothing new. Fairtrade goods are now as familiar to shoppers as free-range eggs, while organic food labels reassure consumers that their vegetables have been treated with nothing harsher than compost. A logo explaining climate change, then, is a logical next step for brands that are cutting their carbon dioxide emissions. The UK Carbon Trust's Carbon Reduction Label was launched last year with high street retailer Boots, Walkers and Innocent Drinks agreeing to pilot the scheme.

Look for mutual interest areas, rather than vie for contention

Editorial from The Patriot News: PSATS represents a major constituency in any discussion of local government reform. Putting such an in-depth report before its members on this important topic is commendable. But we do take exception to some comments and positions expressed by individuals and organizations that seem designed to confuse and misinform. We're talking here about those who paint local government reform as an initiative of big government proponents and urban interests at the expense of what are mostly efficiently run and fiscally sound townships. Or, as the magazine described them, some who see reformers as "nothing more than modern-day Robin Hoods, whose underlying motive is to take away from the rich and give it to the poor."

Renewable Energy Firms Strike Gold with Green Employee Benefits

Fueled by strong convictions, a desire to mold a cohesive company culture, achieve good will and gain competitive advantages -- for clients and employee talent, relatively low-cost employee benefit programs motivate employees to become more energy conscious consumers, live healthier lives and neutralize their own personal carbon footprint. Professing the sustainable merits of a firm's renewable technology or service appears simply not enough.

BT- and Cisco-Sponsored Paper Says Sustainability Breeds Innovation and Profitability

Focusing on sustainability can help businesses innovate and see profits, but it's a concept that has to start with leadership and be part of a company's culture, according to a paper released yesterday. "A New Mindset for Corporate Sustainability," published by a group of international academic experts and sponsored by BT and Cisco, uses case studies to illustrate the authors' main argument that sustainability can drive commercial success and lead businesses to craft new products and services.

Local firm to develop new process for biodiesel

A local technology company has received a federal grant of $1.9 million for the development of a biodiesel production process that promises to be cheaper, more efficient and more flexible than processes now used. Harmarville-based Thar Technologies Inc. received the grant, from the National Institute of Science and Technology, to further its research in using highly pressurized carbon dioxide to extract biodiesel from feedstock. Thar President and Chief Executive Officer Lalit Chorida said that to date, biodiesel production has been a two-stage process--first, hexane is used to extract vegetable oil from oilseed, then the vegetable oil is converted to biodiesel. In Thar's proposed single-stage process, carbon dioxide replaces hexane, a toxic solvent.

SAVE THE DATE: 8th annual SWPA Smart Growth Conference (Continued)

In his recently released book, The Option of Urbanism, Leinberger reviews how Americans are voting with their feet to abandon strip malls and suburban sprawl, embracing instead a new type of community where they can live, work, shop, and play within easy walking distance. He explains why government policies have tilted the playing field toward one form of development over the last sixty years: the drivable suburb. Conversely, Leinberger shows how the American Dream is now shifting to include cities as well as suburbs and how the financial and real estate communities need to respond by building communities that are more environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable.

Leinberger has written award-winning articles for publications such as The Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal and Urban Land magazine. He has been profiled by CNN, the Today Show, and National Public Radio.

From Leinberger's website: Over the past 15 years, many consumers have been demanding different options to the “one-size-fits-all” drivable sub-urbanism. While single-family homes on large lots and strip commercial will be a significant part of the market for decades to come, there are many segments of the population that want something different; what can be broadly called “walkable urbanism”. These alternatives include downtown and suburban downtown revitalization, New Urbanism, transit-oriented development, green field mixed-use development (“lifestyle centers”), regional mall redevelopment, among others. Progressive public policy responses that allow for and promote this kind of development include smart growth, strategy and management of walkable urban places, impact fees that “level the planning field”, affordable & workforce housing development and strategy and management of metropolitan areas.

There is pent-up market demand for the alternative to drivable sub-urbanism that is readily apparent and we in real estate are re-tooling how we design, plan, regulate and finance to serve these markets. There has been much accomplished in this regard over the past decade, led by real estate developers, political and civic leaders, and organizations.

Working with many like-minded people and institutions, we are all formulating and implementing the next American Dream.

For information on becoming a Member of Sustainable Pittsburgh, please visit our website.

3E Links is sent as a service to Sustainable Pittsburgh Members and interested parties and is being distributed for informational purposes. The information above was provided by or obtained from the organizing institution or one of its representatives. Our distribution does not imply endorsement. To unsubscribe, reply to this e-mail and type UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

Click here to access the 3E Links Archive. Use "Search" on SP's homepage for a great resource.

Sustainable Pittsburgh affects decision-making in the Pittsburgh Region to integrate economic prosperity, social equity and environmental quality bringing sustainable solutions to communities and businesses.

Sustainable Pittsburgh benefits from support in 2007 from:

Dollar Bank
Elsie H. Hillman Foundation
The Giant Eagle Foundation
The Heinz Endowments
Richard King Mellon Foundation
Roy A. Hunt Foundation
University of Pittsburgh


Special thanks to the SP Members

Sustainable Pittsburgh
425 Sixth Avenue, Suite 1335
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
(412) 258-6642
fax (412) 258-6645
E-mail SP