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Events

Resources

Upcoming Sustainable Pittsburgh Event

Sustainability and Smart Growth Forum:

Wednesday, September 26
"GREENPRINT - A regional conservation agenda prioritizing land conservation for the public good" 11:30 am - 1:00 pm
Location: Davis Room, 23rd Floor, Regional Enterprise Tower, 425 Sixth Ave., Downtown Pittsburgh
Bring a brown bag lunch -- beverages and dessert provided.
Free to attend.
Register: email info@sustainablepittsburgh.org or call (412) 258-6642

Build it and they will come. We're not talking about ball fields and fans here – we’re talking about upstream development and floods. As upstream development continues, downstream flooding becomes more frequent and damaging, and more raw sewage pollutes our waterways. Aggressive development projects are breeching the wooded ridgelines and slopes along the rivers creating landslides and visible scars in the landscape. Fifty percent of the land visible from the highways following the three rivers is now developed. The region is at the tipping point of losing the natural character that makes Pittsburgh’s image unique among major cities in the world. The public health, environmental, economic and regional image implications of these problems are significant. A comprehensive approach including strategic land conservation is needed to solve these problems. Come to learn how Allegheny Land Trust is working to identify the lands that represent the region’s highly functional natural infrastructure that naturally helps to manage storm and floodwaters while maintaining the region’s scenic character and biodiversity. Landowners, planners, municipal staff and elected officials can benefit from this presentation which includes ideas about how they can be part of the solution not part of the problem.

Presentation by Roy Kraynyk, Executive Director Allegheny Land Trust - www.alleghenylandtrust.org

Sponsored by:

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Resources Continued

Public Transit - Human Services Coordinated Transportation Roundtables

Monday, August 27
9:00 am-11:00 am - DOWNTOWN PITTSBURGH
Regional Enterprise Tower, 31st Floor
425 Sixth Avenue

Tuesday, August 28
9:00 am-11:00 am - YOUNGWOOD, PA
Westmoreland County Community College, Commissioners Hall Room 2301-2
145 Pavilion Lane
Additional meetings will be held at different times on August 28 in Ellwood City, Washington, Freeport, and Carmichaels, PA.

During the week of August 27th, the Access to Work Interagency Cooperative (ATWIC), is conducting six roundtable sessions throughout the region to begin the development of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Public Transit - Human Services Coordinated Transportation Plan. The roundtable meetings will provide an overview of the coordinated plan process, confirm the findings of a recent transportation survey, establish goals and objectives for the plan, and begin a discussion of unmet transportation needs. Public input related to roundtable discussion will be taken at the end of each meeting.

For more information, email swpa_plan@urscorp.com or contact David Stragar, Project Manager, ATWIC at (412) 201-3970.

After the Storms: Introduction to Stormwater Management

Thursday, August 30
9:00 am-3:00 pm (8:30 am registration and breakfast)
Fee: $25
Location: Pittsburgh Technical Institute, 1111 McKee Road, Oakdale, PA 15071
Free parking
Note: Registration ends 8/29!
More information

Stormwater management is typically a popular topic after the storms, when communities are cleaning up and recovering from the latest flood. This workshop is designed to give you the information on the latest developments and tools that can be used to address stormwater issues before the storms take their toll on your community. Many of the presenters are local officials who will share their experiences and successes dealing with this critical issue.

Camp Wellstone Training Program

September 14-16
2:00 pm-9:00 pm - Friday
9:00 am-6:00 pm - Saturday
9:00 am-3:00 pm - Sunday
Fee: $100, or $50 for students, low-income, or unemployed participants
Sign up today at the CCP PA website: http://ccp.org/states/PA.html.

Wellstone Action is working with Progressive Majority, the Center for Civic Participation PA Voter Collaborative and Everybody VOTE to help promote Wellstone Action's Camp Wellstone nonpartisan training program. Camp Wellstone is a weekend-long training for building grassroots organizing skills for people interested in making change on issues, electing progressive candidates, or running for office themselves.

A Forum on Open Government

Saturday, September 15
1:00 pm
William Pitt Student Union, on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh
Free of charge; open to the public

The focus of the forum will be an examination of Pennsylvania's current Right to Know Law and the pending RTKL amendments in Harrisburg. The goal is to present a free exchange of information and ideas to the public about one of the most important foundations of our republic: citizens' ability to access their government.

The following speakers have confirmed their attendance at the forum:
Teri Henning, Pennsylvania Newspaper Association; Rep. Tim Mahoney,Uniontown and author/sponsor of HB443; Ron Barber, attorney for Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; Senator Jim Ferlo, author of SB765; Beverly Schenck, Schenck vs. Center Twp., Butler County; Robert McNeilly, former Pittsburgh Police Chief; Jim Parsons, WTAE TV and Pa. Freedom of Information Coalition, PHEAA vs. Parsons, et.al; Tim Potts, Democracy Rising PA; James Manolis, attorney for New Castle News.

CCAC, Operating Engineers Local 95 join efforts to assure workforce expertise for ‘green’ buildings

Every Thursday, beginning September 20
8:00 am-11:00 am
Local 95 facility, 300 Saline Street, Greenfield (City of Pittsburgh)
For more details or to register, contact Debbie Dellamalva, Local 95, at (412) 422-4702.

In response to the growing demand for ‘green’ buildings--and knowledgeable people to run them--Community College of Allegheny County is partnering with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 95 to provide training for stationary engineers who want to qualify for a Green Building Sustainability License. The 30-hour training course is geared to facility managers, contractors, maintenance engineers and others in the building industry. Developed by Local 95 experts, the coursework will cover topics such as: sustainable materials, indoor air quality, renewable energy sources, effective energy and water management, and the recycling of lighting and building materials, etc.

Reclaiming Vacant Properties: Strategies for Rebuilding America’s Neighborhoods

September 24 and 25
Omni William Penn Hotel, 530 William Penn Place , Pittsburgh , PA
For more information, visit http://www.vacantproperties.org/reclaimingconference.html.

Don't miss the first national conference focusing on helping realize the potential of vacant properties as community assets – highlighting strategies to ensure they benefit the residents, communities, and cities around them. 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. Sponsored by the National Vacant Properties Campaign, a program of Smart Growth America, LISC, the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, and the Genesee Institute. Sustainable Pittsburgh is a conference partner.

Sustainability and Smart Growth Forum: GREENPRINT - A regional conservation agenda prioritizing land conservation for the public good

Wednesday, September 26
"Build it and they will come"
11:30 am - 1:00 pm
Location: Davis Room, 23rd Floor, Regional Enterprise Tower, 425 Sixth Ave., Downtown Pittsburgh
Bring a brown bag lunch -- beverages and dessert provided.
No fee to attend.
Register: info@sustainablepittsburgh.org or (412) 258-6642

Build it and they will come...We're not talking about ball fields and fans here – we’re talking about upstream development and floods. As upstream development continues, downstream flooding becomes more frequent and damaging, and more raw sewage pollutes our waterways. Aggressive development projects are breeching the wooded ridgelines and slopes along the rivers creating landslides and visible scars in the landscape. Fifty percent of the land visible from the highways following the three rivers is now developed. The region is at the tipping point of losing the natural character that makes Pittsburgh’s image unique among major cities in the world. The public health, environmental, economic and regional image implications of these problems are significant. A comprehensive approach including strategic land conservation is needed to solve these problems.
Come to learn how Allegheny Land Trust is working to identify the lands that represent the region’s highly functional natural infrastructure that naturally helps to manage storm and floodwaters while maintaining the region’s scenic character and biodiversity. Landowners, planners, municipal staff and elected officials can benefit from this presentation which includes ideas about how they can be part of the solution not part of the problem.
Presentation by Roy Kraynyk, Executive Director Allegheny Land Trust - www.alleghenylandtrust.org Sponsored by Oxford Development Company.

Richard Louv and 'Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder'

Thursday, September 27
8:00 pm
Robert S. Carey Student Center, Performing Arts Center, Saint Vincent College
Latrobe, Pennsylvania
Free of charge.
Reservations required.
Reservations may be made beginning on September 4. Phone (724) 537-4556 (1 to 4 p.m. weekdays) Or e-mail threshold@stvincent.edu

TICKETS AND RESERVATIONS
All seats in the Robert S. Carey Student Center Performing Arts Center are reserved and admission will be by ticket only. When requesting a reservation, provide your name, address, daytime phone, and number of seats requested. All reservations will be confirmed by phone or email. Tickets will be held at the Ferretti Box Office in the Carey Center for pickup when you arrive for the presentation; no tickets are mailed in advance. Tickets not claimed by 7:50 p.m. will be released.

Special Note: After making a reservation, if you are unable to attend, please cancel your reservation via email as soon as possible so that other requests can be accommodated.

This event is co-sponsored by Saint Vincent College Threshold Series and Winner Palmer Nature Reserve.

Mayoral Candidates Forum

Thursday, September 27
6:00 pm-7:30 pm
David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Lecture Hall 406
Downtown Pittsburgh
RSVP by Friday, September 21 by phone: (412) 281-0995 or email: design@judith-kelly.com

Hosted by the Pittsburgh Civic Design Coalition, this forum will feature mayoral candidates Mark DeSantis and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. Katherine Fink from WDUQ Radio will be the moderator. A reception is to follow.

Resources

$1 Million Available for Small Businesses Energy Efficiency, Pollution Prevention

Small Business Advantage is a grant program providing 50% matching grants, up to a maximum of $7,500.00, to enable a Pennsylvania small business to adopt or acquire energy efficient or pollution prevention equipment or processes.

City getting serious about going greener

One payoff of the Pittsburgh Climate Protection Initiative is that there are millions of dollars to be saved...What began as a project to reduce the environmental cost and waste in city government became an imperative for all sectors of the city after a Carnegie Mellon University study last year showed municipal emissions to be a 4 percent slice of a pie dominated by residential, commercial and institutional emissions. These include carbon dioxide and methane.

$500K grant to explore Pittsburgh-Westmoreland commuter line

Initial plans suggested the proposed Latrobe-Greensburg line could use existing tracks and train stations and include stops in Jeannette, Irwin, Trafford, Wilmerding, East Pittsburgh, Braddock, Swissvale and Wilkinsburg...The proposed rail line from Arnold to Pittsburgh's Strip District would stop in New Kensington, Oakmont, Verona and Lawrenceville and utilize existing train tracks.

I-80 tolls: Up to 10 booths in three years

Tolls on I-80 are a linchpin of the state's new transportation-funding law. The plan to provide about $950 million a year in added funding for highways and mass transit depends on toll increases on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the new tolls on I-80, and the allocation of 4.4 percent of the revenue from the state sales tax.

This fall, citizens can make plans to boost prosperity, quality of life, environment

In those cities and others—Chattanooga, Portland, Chicago—people rejected the old model of growth because it wasn’t working. Instead of building roads, malls, big boxes, and subdivisions spreading ever outward, these communities looked inward, toward each other. They built new rail and bus lines, put homes and offices closer together and within walking distance of public transit. They also kept schools in neighborhoods, turned vacant land into parks, and cleaned up their air and water. These cities facilitated more housing that working people could afford, generated new growth and wealth even as they made their neighborhoods and open spaces and shorelines cleaner, safer, and more beautiful, and made themselves into magnets for young people—which is exactly what our region and, indeed, the entire state, needs to do.

Go green and save money

If so, you need to listen to a proposal being aired by Jim Rogers, the chairman and chief executive of Duke Energy, and recently filed with the North Carolina Utilities Commission. (Duke Energy is headquartered in Charlotte.) It's called "save-a-watt," and it aims to turn the electricity/utility industry upside down by rewarding utilities for the kilowatts they save customers by improving their energy efficiency rather than rewarding them for the kilowatts they sell customers by building more power plants...Because energy efficiency is, in effect, a resource, he added, in order for utilities to use more of it, "efficiency should be treated as a production cost in the regulatory arena." The utility would earn its money on the basis of the actual watts it saves through efficiency innovations...Pulling all this off will be very complicated. But if Rogers and North Carolina can do it, it would be the mother of all energy paradigm shifts.

Highway turn: The turnpike gives a boost and hope to major plans

Although there was no funding for these plans in the transportation budget, there is hope at the turnpike for a new funding source. No one knows, for instance, exactly how much revenue will be generated by I-80's tolls. Also, the governor's short-lived appeal for private entities to lease the turnpike may have unwittingly stirred interest in a public-private partnership that could complete these highways. Still, the public's patience is wearing thin. While Pennsylvanians in the path of these plans are glad to see some movement, they're a long way from the finish line. It's time to find the funding or lay these concrete dreams to rest.

Four restaurant owners say the levy, intended to support transit, would hurt business

The first comments in Allegheny County's process of imposing a drink tax to fund public transit were unanimously opposed. They came by four restaurant owners who said they will see a reduction in business as soon as that tax is imposed. The measure, passed in July by the state Legislature as part of the transportation bill, gives Allegheny County the ability to impose a tax of up to 10 percent on alcoholic beverages served in bars and restaurants.

Consolidating government services necessary as development brings a flood of problems

While touring the destruction in Millvale, County Executive Dan Onorato said he might push the state Legislature to give the county more oversight on local development to prevent this thoughtless harm. He must do this. Officials and residents of low-lying communities should hold his and their state representatives' feet to the fire...Perhaps a comprehensive countywide approach to development would prevent one township's unilateral and sometimes ill-advised decisions from draining the till of the township up the road -- or down the watershed.

Group meets to cut carbon emissions

The group, which has been meeting about every two weeks since the beginning of June at the Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church on the North Side, is using as its guide a book called "Low Carbon Diet -- A 30-Day Program to Lose 5,000 Pounds" by David Gershon. The group will hold an open meeting at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church, 1110 Resaca Place, North Side.

Federal rule would expand mining practice of mountaintop removal

The Bush administration is set to issue a regulation Friday that would extend the coal mining practice of mountaintop removal. The technique involves blasting off the tops of mountains and dumping the rubble into valleys and streams...A spokesman for the National Mining Association, Luke Popovich, said that unless mine owners were allowed to dump mine waste in streams and valleys, it would be impossible to operate in mountainous regions like West Virginia that hold some of the richest low-sulfur coal seams.

Redefining Progress issues climate policy initiative called the Climate Asset Plan

States have often been seen as laboratories of democracy, taking the lead in areas that subsequently become models for national action. Right now, many states are moving toward creative policies that simultaneously protect public health and the environment while reducing budget deficits and creating jobs. Policies that address climate change are one such initiative succeeding at the state level. Redefining Progress’ climate policy initiative is called the Climate Asset Plan (CAP). CAP limits global warming and other pollution at the state level while promoting broadly shared growth in employment and the economy.

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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