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Events

Diversity: Corporate Leadership and Issues for Our Region

Thursday, March 19
3:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Kurtzman Room, William Pitt Student Union, University of Pittsburgh, Oakland
Free to attend. To register contact: ethics@gspia.pitt.edu or 412-648-1336

Join the Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership and Sustainable Pittsburgh in a presentation by Keith Caver, Vice President and Practice Leader, Executive Development, Executive Solutions Group, Development Dimensions International (DDI) and President of Caver Consulting, LLC.

This public presentation will focus on corporate strategies for encouraging diversity as well as personal strategies for career management and development. The panel discussion will focus on strengthening SWPA through diversity and leadership development. Caver is the co-author of Leading in Black and White: Working Across the Racial Divide in Corporate America and one of the leading authorities on corporate diversity and leadership.

Resources

Great Communities Don’t Just Happen

Featuring:
John K. Trant, Jr., Chief Strategic Planning Officer, Cranberry Township
Court Gould, Executive Director, Sustainable Pittsburgh
Friday, March 6
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Cranberry Twp. Municipal Center/Council Chambers
To RSVP, Linda Rocco, 724-776-776-4806, x 1118 or Linda.rocco@cranberrytownship.org

This session will focus on the Township’s Principles for Sustainable Development, as well as the results of a detailed Sustainability Assessment to evaluate all aspects of the Township’s physical plant, policies, and operations. The discussion will also include a review of the Growth Management Analysis. This phase of the planning process began with an evaluation of the Cranberry Township market to gain a better understanding of the growth pressures. The results of the Market Assessment were used to create three alternative futures (Growth Scenarios) for the Township. Each scenario was then evaluated based on its impacts to the Township’s physical infrastructure, operations, and finances. Ultimately, a preferred scenario was identified, around which detailed implementation strategies were created.

This session will focus on these aspects of the Cranberry Plan, as well as the 82-member Citizen Advisory Panel and the group’s role in the planning process.

Register Now: 2009 9th annual SWPA Smart Growth Conference

"Sustainable Community Essentials: applying the policy and practice"
Thursday, May 21
9:00 am - 6:15 pm (continental breakfast and lunch included; cash bar during evening reception)
David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown Pittsburgh
Keynote speaker: Douglas Farr, AIA, author of Sustainable Urbanism and founding principal of Farr Associates
Cost: Early Registration: $30. After May 1: $50 (free to elected officials)
Register Now

- Keynote: Douglas Farr, AIA, author of Sustainable Urbanism and founding principal of Farr Associates, an architecture and planning firm regarded as one of the most sustainable design practices in the country. Having a mission to create sustainable human environments, Farr Associate's unique niche is in applying the principles of LEED at the scale of the neighborhood.
- Update on the Federal Stimulus Package and PennDOT Smart Transportation initiative
- Panel review of sustainable community initiatives around the region
- Workshops tracking new "Essentials of Sustainable Communities" resources

Today's difficult times are placing extraordinary strains on our region's communities. Rising costs of all types are putting a tight squeeze on municipalities and residents. Expectations and needs are also increasing. The policy and practice of sustainable development offers solutions. Come learn how your community, municipality, or county can put sustainability to work to save taxpayer dollars and avoid costs, meet needs equitably, conserve resources, and attract investment. Sustainability is central to professional management of local government and a collective imperative for Southwestern Pennsylvania's competitiveness and quality of life. Learn how to accelerate your community's success on environmental stewardship, social equity, economic development as well as fiscal viability and organizational capacity to learn, innovate and adapt.

Presented by:
Community Design Center of Pittsburgh
Local Government Academy
Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development
Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development
Smart Growth Partnership of Westmoreland County
Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission
Sustainable Community Development Network, Sustainable Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh Institute of Politics

The Ultimate Gift

Thursday, February 26 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
The Byham Theater, Downtown
Cost: $49.00 for the entire family
FREE for members
For more information and registration details, please call 412-648-1544, or email ieeregistration@katz.pitt.edu.
Website

Academy Award® nominees James Garner and Abigail Breslin star in this inspiring drama based on Jim Stovall’s best selling novel, The Ultimate Gift. Simple life lessons are dusted off for the younger generation as we learn about family values and the true meaning of community. Find out how it is possible to live every day with a purpose and the great impact it can have on our future.

Join the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence for a full movie experience complete with popcorn and hotdogs, and a follow-up discussion with the film’s co-executive producer and co-founder of Helixx Group, Paul Brooks. Receive a special take home gift to keep the conversation going.

This film event is ideal for parents, grandparents and children ages 12 and older.

Doing business in a way that is good for people, the planet, and profits

Distinguished Lecture Series in Environmental Science, Technology, and Policy
Thursday, February 26
4:30 pm
Adamson Wing Auditorium, 136A Baker Hall, Carnegie Mellon University
Featuring: James E. Rogers, Chairman, President and CEO, Duke Energy; Charlotte, North Carolina
View event flyer

Additional events include:
William A. Wallace, Founder and President
Wallace Futures Group
Steamboat Springs, Colorado

"Sustainability: the tipping point"
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
4:30 pm -- Adamson Wing Auditorium, 136A Baker Hall

James E. Rohr, Chairman, President and CEO
PNC Financial Services Group
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

"Thinking green: How PNC applies sustainability to create value for stakeholders"
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
4:30 pm -- Adamson Wing Auditorium, 136A Baker Hall

LEED the way to Green Buildings - Part II

An External Commercial Green Building
Monday, March 9
Noon - 4:00 pm
Regional Enterprise Tower, 23rd Floor, O'Neill Room, Downtown
Cost: $15 (includes lunch and workshop materials)
RSVP by March 6 to 412-392-0610 or information@aaccwp.com

Featuring Byron Falchetti, President, Standard Property Corporation: A Highmark Company & Chairman, Green Building Alliance

This workshop, the second of a four-part series, will present the four levels of green building certification, and the evolution of green design & performance measures in the region. Highmark's Silver Certified Data Center will be presented as an example of green design and construction. Who should attend? Professionals from all industries and business levels: attorneys, architects, business consultants, accountants, & construction and trade professionals.

Electronic Billboard Meeting Notice

Wednesday, March 11
5:30 pm
200 Ross Street, John P. Robin Civic Building, 1st Floor, Planning Dept. Conference Room (Downtown)

This purpose of this meeting is to solicit input on the issue of amending city regulations to allow for the provision of LED billboards. Working with the City of Pittsburgh Department of Law, City Councilman Burgess, crafted legislation that defines regulations for LED advertising signs. It permits such signs so long as they conform to all advertising sign regulations; approval is through the Zoning Board of Adjustment’s special exception process. There are currently over 900 billboards in the City of Pittsburgh.

While the regulation revision effort will provide a means for the industry to employ LED’s it was not intended to facilitate more billboards or unrestrictive conversion of nonconforming signs to LED’s. The City Planning Commission is concerned with the impacts of LED's compared to static billboards, the number of billboards that currently exist in the City of Pittsburgh, and the effects of the proposed regulations. They would like further public input to assist them in making decisions related to the proposed legislation.

Solar Panel Workshop

March 16-20, 2009
Conservation Consultants, Inc., 64 S. 14th St., South Side
Space is limited
For more information call CCI at 412-431-4449 and enter ext. 200 or 240.
Details and registration now online

CCI’s 5-day solar workshop is created for contractors, electricians, sales reps, entrepreneurs & career-changing professionals new to solar business, and covers solar-electric (PV) equipment, system design, installation, estimating, solar industry economics, business models, and career paths. It also includes the start for NABCEP's new Entry Level Certificate of Knowledge of PV Systems (the industry- standard general-knowledge certificate for people entering the field).

Career Development Workshop

Preparing Yourself for Leadership
With Keith Caver
Thursday, March 19
William Pitt Student Union Ballroom
University of Pittsburgh, Oakland
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm, Lunch will be served.
Space is limited, reservations are required.
To register contact: ethics@gspia.pitt.edu or 412-648-1336 by March 12.

This workshop, presented by the Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership, will focus on effective strategies for students to position themselves for leadership positions. Keith Caver is Vice President and Practice Leader, Executive Development, Executive Solutions Group, Development Dimensions International (DDI) and President of Caver Consulting, LLC. Caver is the co-author of Leading in Black and White: Working Across the Racial Divide in Corporate America and is one of the nation’s leading authorities on corporate diversity and leadership.

Diversity: Corporate Leadership and Issues for Our Region

Thursday, March 19
3:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Kurtzman Room, William Pitt Student Union, University of Pittsburgh, Oakland
Free to attend. To register contact: ethics@gspia.pitt.edu or 412-648-1336

Join the Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership and Sustainable Pittsburgh in a presenation by Keith Caver, Vice President and Practice Leader, Executive Development, Executive Solutions Group, Development Dimensions International (DDI) and President of Caver Consulting, LLC.

This public presentation will focus on corporate strategies for encouraging diversity as well as personal strategies for career management and development. The panel discussion will focus on strengthening SWPA through diversity and leadership development. Caver is the co-author of Leading in Black and White: Working Across the Racial Divide in Corporate America and one of the leading authorities on corporate diversity and leadership.

Preserve Pittsburgh Summit

Saturday, March 28
Frick Fine Arts Building, Oakland
8:30 am - 3:00 pm (reception to follow)
www.youngpreservationists.org
Event Flyer

Team up with fellow young people and community residents to make history come alive at the Preserve Pittsburgh Summit. The Young Preservationists Association seeks innovative ideas from young people to create a better future for these important but endangered historic sites. Facilitators will guide discussion groups and on-site tours to develop recommendations for these four historic sites: New Granada Theatre, Hill District; First home of the National Negro Opera Company, Homewood; August Wilson House, Hill District; and Garden Theater, North Side. The Preserve Pittsburgh Summit also features networking opportunities, information on careers in preservation, and a post-conference reception that will show the best YouTubeTM videos on historic preservation.

The Future of Green Jobs

Featuring Jerome Ringo
Monday, March 31
6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Westin Convention Center Hotel, Pittsburgh
Cost: Early: $40 for GBA/AACC members; $50 non-members
After March 10: $50 for GBA/AACC members; $60 for non-members
For information call 412-431-0709.

Jerome Ringo, President, Apollo Alliance, catalyzes crowds with his rousing speeches about the importance of a clean energy, good job economy--and the role we can all play in shaping a green-collar future for our community and providing real solutions for our energy crisis.

- Dedicated champion of environmental justice and advocate of clean energy
- 20-year veteran of Louisiana's petrochemical industry
- Union member who worked to secure a safe work environment and quality jobs
- 2005 Chair of National Wildlife Federation board
- U.S. Delegate at the 1998 Global Warming Treaty Negotiations in Kyoto, Japan

Resources

Stimulus Roadblock?

VIDEO: President Obama's stimulus money is nearly out the door and on its way to the states, but will it be spent in the way it is intended? One alarming example: Mass transit. Cities and states, strapped for money, are cutting back on mass transit even as it becomes more popular with Americans. Meanwhile, President Obama is calling for increased mass transit as a necessary step toward energy independence. Will the government's investment dramatically revitalize our national travel infrastructure, or will states spend the money according to 'business as usual'? This week NOW travels to North Carolina to see what the future holds for mass transit in these troubling financial times. Our investigation is part of a PBS-wide series on the country's infrastructure called "Blueprint America."

Burning out: Coal prices come back to earth

"The CO2 issue will play a critical role in determining our future," he said. Producers are waiting to see how the new administration will make good on promises to implement a cap-and-trade program for the reduction of greenhouse gases. Uncertainty about that issue, he said, has prevented utility companies that are the largest users of coal from "making any types of decisions regarding new capacity."

More

Stimulus Good News: Ready States, Regions

OK, you’ve heard the litany--that stimulus flows will be too disconnected, frittered away. But what if the prevailing wisdom is wrong? What if 20 years of emerging metropolitan consciousness and capacity in Sacramento and Denver and Kansas City and Chicago and Charlotte mean that the package evokes surprising successes on the part of savvy region-minded leaders?

Survey: Americans would pay for infrastructure

“These survey results show people understand the value infrastructure projects have in advancing job creation and economic competitiveness,” says Paul Yarossi, president of HNTB Holdings Ltd. “By making it easier to deliver goods and services and respond to natural and man-made disasters, America will prosper.”

A PenTrans Agenda for Better Transportation in Pa.

PenTrans Advisory Group member Jeremy Alvarez offers eight ways PenTrans can help raise the bar on Pennsylvania transportation

Leadership for Healthy Communities

Based in Washington, D.C., Leadership for Healthy Communities is a $10-million national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation designed to support local and state government leaders nationwide in their efforts to reduce childhood obesity through public policies that promote active living, healthy eating and access to healthy foods.

How the Crash Will Reshape America

That’s the challenge that many Rust Belt cities share: managing population decline without becoming blighted. . .To a surprising degree, the causes of this crash are geographic in nature, and they point out a whole system of economic organization and growth that has reached its limit. Positioning the economy to grow strongly in the coming decades will require not just fiscal stimulus or industrial reform; it will require a new kind of geography as well, a new spatial fix for the next chapter of American economic history.

E.P.A. Expected to Regulate Carbon Dioxide

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to act for the first time to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists blame for the warming of the planet, according to top Obama administration officials. The decision, which most likely would play out in stages over a period of months, would have a profound impact on transportation, manufacturing costs and how utilities generate power. It could accelerate the progress of energy and climate change legislation in Congress and form a basis for the United States’ negotiating position at United Nations climate talks set for December in Copenhagen. The environmental agency is under order from the Supreme Court to make a determination whether carbon dioxide is a pollutant that endangers public health and welfare, an order that the Bush administration essentially ignored despite near-unanimous belief among agency experts that research points inexorably to such a finding.

Atlanta Declares Itself a 'Zero Waste Zone'

The Zero Waste Zone was announced last week through a partnership between local restaurants and the convention center that will divert tons of garbage, food scraps and used cooking oil from landfills.

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

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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 2009 from:

Bayer Corporation
Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation
Dollar Bank
The Giant Eagle Foundation
The Heinz Endowments
Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield
Elsie H. Hillman Foundation
Richard King Mellon Foundation
Dylan Todd Simonds 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