Events

Resources

Collaborations in Regional Civic Engagement

With the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission having recently adopted Project Region, Sustainable Pittsburgh was pleased to partner in the public process, applauds the focused growth sensibilities, and looks forward to the region's embrace of the plan with a particular interest in project prioritization that assesses future investments for alignment with the goals and objectives that distinguish the plan.

SPC's 2006 Annual Report, Envisioning the Region is now available on-line:

"At SPC, 2006 was a year of expanding our partnerships and focusing on the future. SPC partnered with many state, regional and local groups to lay the foundation for a new plan for Southwestern Pennsylvania—Project Region...

Partnering with civic groups like Sustainable Pittsburgh reinforced our belief that everyone has a stake in the new economy and everyone has something to offer in building on our region’s strengths...

SPC also participated with Sustainable Pittsburgh in six major regional forums on community development across boundaries.

Five forums were held throughout the region to discuss many of the topics that affect regional communities, which then culminated with Sustainable Pittsburgh’s Annual Smart Growth Conference. SPC again played a large role in the conference, which also featured the release of the Regional Transit Vision. The outcomes of the five forums and the Smart Growth Conference fed directly into the new planning process….

In 2006, SPC created a Project Evaluation Process Subcommittee to develop efficient methods to incorporate technical project assessments throughout the transportation planning process to help our region’s decision-makers in their difficult task of allocating scarce transportation funds...SPC is also integrating the findings of these technical project evaluation studies into its work with Project Region and the development of long-range transportation investment strategies."

To learn more, click here.

Resources Continued

Tireless Friday

August 3
Duck Hollow Trail (confluence of Nine Mile Run and Monongahela River)
Pittsburgh (Squirrel Hill)
More

Join PA CleanWays of Allegheny County, Inc. and its Tireless Project partners for the last Tireless Friday event of the summer. Help clean up litter and debris along the Duck Hollow Trail and adjacent Monogahela River riparian buffer zone. See why it's important to be good stewards of the rivers. As always, equipment, refreshments, instructions, musical entertainment and dinner will be provided.

DiverseCITY Pittsburgh Festival

August 16 - 19
PNC Firstside Park - Grant Street & First Avenue
Pittsburgh (Downtown)
Info: diversecitypittsburgh.org

The inaugural DiverseCITY Pittsburgh Festival will include free concerts and performances by national and local entertainers; fun, cultural and artistic activities for youth and children; international foods, exhibits by local community services and cultural organizations and a global marketplace.

Pennsylvania Wilds Conference

September 13 - 14
Williamsport
Cost $75
More

This is the first large-scale gathering of those involved and interested in the Pennsylvania Wilds initiative. Attendees will include elected officials, planners, downtown mangers, business owners, economic development leaders, recreation providers, conservation organizations and others from the 12-county region in northcentral Pennsylvania.

Don't miss Reclaiming Vacant Properties: Strategies for Rebuilding America's Neighborhoods!

September 24-25
Omni William Penn Hotel, Downtown Pittsburgh
More

This two-day conference will bring together practitioners, policymakers, and concerned citizens from throughout the country to share model practices and problem solve. Take advantage of this opportunity to design new strategies to prevent and revitalize vacant properties, which will consequently improve public safety and health, and spur economic growth.

Mayoral Candidates Forum

Thursday, September 27
6 - 7:30 pm
David Lawrence Convention Center
Downtown Pittsburgh
RSVP: 412-281-0995 design@judith-kelly.com

The Pittsburgh Civic Design Coalition--composed of organizations and initiatives committed to promoting quality design as a defining feature of the Pittsburgh region--is hosting a Mayoral Candidates Forum. Democratic nominee Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Republican Mark DeSantis have confirmed their participation in the 90-minute forum, which will focus on issues of design, development, and civic planning of the built environment.

WDUQ Radio's Katherine Fink will moderate the event. WDUQ will tape the Mayoral Candidates Forum to be aired in early October. The format of the event will be based on guidelines from the American Institute of Architects: each candidate will be asked the same questions, with two minutes to respond and one minute for rebuttal. Candidates will have the opportunity to present 2-minute opening and closing statements. Questions will be crafted by members of the Pittsburgh Civic Design Coalition; additionally, up to five questions will be accepted from the audience of architects, planners, and civic leaders.

Resources

Pittsburgh Region Promo Videos

Discover what western Pennsylvania has to offer through travel videos–-brought to you by a partnership between post-gazette.com and Discover Pittsburgh Country.

The Washington County Transit Study

The Washington County Transit Study project team is evaluating the current transit services and identifying the unmet public transportation needs in Washington County. These efforts have led to the development of preliminary transit service improvement concepts that the team wants to share with the public for its input.

For more information, please visit the project’s website at www.spcregion.org/wcts . The project website details the improvement concepts developed as well as the schedule for upcoming public outreach. The site also highlights many other project details so please be sure to visit the site!

4 Western Pa. power plants among nation's dirtiest

Four coal-fired power plants in Western Pennsylvania have landed on this year's ranking of the 50 dirtiest for emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, according to a new report by a nonprofit environmental group. Shippingport site ranked 17th; others are located in Indiana County.

New PennFuture Podcast: Confronting Global Warming in Pennsylvania, Agricultural Threats and Opportunities

This is part two in PennFuture's two-part series on the Union of Concerned Scientists' (UCS) recent report "Confronting Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast: Science, Impacts and Solutions." In this podcast, PennFuture speaks with Dr. Lewis Ziska, who serves as one of the members of the UCS health & agriculture teams. Dr. Ziska is a plant physiologist with the United States Department of Agriculture in their Agricultural Research Service.

Top 10 Emerging Environmental Technologies

LiveScience.com presents its top ten emerging environmental technologies.

Community Climate Solutions

What are communities doing to reduce their contribution to climate change? What can your community do? The Northeast is rich with examples that we can all learn from. Clean Air-Cool Planet, with assistance from Jeffrey H. Taylor and Associates, have created this Toolkit to assist communities in implementing sustainable policies and projects. This web-based "how-to" guide for municipal staff and elected or appointed representatives provides: Step-by-step project guides, Important contacts, Financing mechanisms, Cost implications, Model ordinances, The Toolkit offers projects focused on energy, transportation, waste and land use. (note Pittsburgh's Rack 'n Roll Bikes on Buses Program is included)

Problems Are Interconnected -- and So Are Solutions

What we are rarely told is that solutions are as interconnected as problems. One good environmental action can send out waves of good effects as impressive as the chain of disasters that results from environmental evil...Many of these environmental solutions are considered "uneconomic", but that is because the economics have been figured only for the most short-term and close-in links of the chains. If we calculated the effects on the whole system, we'd see that the wages of environmental sin may be deadly, but the wages of environmental good sense can be enormous.

EU weighs options on 'greener' consumption and production

The European Commission has opened a public consultation on how to make products greener and lure shoppers towards low-carbon and more resource-efficient products...The main actions under consideration include: - Enhancing product labelling "so as to facilitate a shift of demand towards the most sustainable products" as already carried out under the eco-design directive. - Supporting "leaner and cleaner" production techniques, including resource and material efficiency targets and eco-management and audit schemes for large industrial installations. - Supporting sustainable consumption by reinforcing measures to "internalise environmental cost into product prices" and stimulate markets for best performing products.

Sustainable Community Planning

The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has created a Sustainable Community Planning section on its website that provides best practices in design and development, tools for planners and designers, and other research on sustainability. CMHC's stated goal is to encourage neighborhood design and land use planning approaches that reduce costs and environmental impacts, while maintaining community liveability. Resources and topics of discussion include - Residential Intensification, - Brownfield Redevelopment for Housing, - Greyfield Redevelopment for Housing, - Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), - Sustainable Planning and Development for Small Communities, - Comparing Neighborhoods for Sustainable Features.

A Blueprint for National Prosperity: What the 2008 Election Should Be About

Bruce Katz of Brookings: We stand on the eve of a remarkable juncture in American history, the first presidential election since 1952 when no incumbent president or vice president will run as the nominee of either political party. This promises to set off a competition for ideas among the major candidates, as they scramble to distinguish themselves before a public hungry for leadership. The ‘08 election also takes place at a time of dynamic change in the US and abroad— demographic, economic, environmental—which fundamentally alters the mix of challenges facing the nation. Given this historic moment, let me offer some thoughts about what this election should be about… from the perspective of a person who is daily immersed in the ebb and flow of American communities….

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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 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