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Events

Sign up now for the Green Workplace Challenge

Join the ranks of businesses large and small like Berner International, Eaton Corporation, Massaro Corporation, Pashek Associates, The PNC Financial Services Group, and many others in the region that are signing up for the Pittsburgh Green Workplace Challenge, a competition promoting sustainable business practices.

This yearlong challenge steps beyond national trendsetters in enabling businesses to actively track and receive credit and verification for green actions. Businesses can participate whether they are tenants or building owners.

Participation in the Green Workplace Challenge helps businesses gain:
- Financial savings from reduced energy, water, and waste expenses
- Access to workshops, experts, and tools to manage utility usage and costs
- Public recognition for green achievements

SIGN UP ENDS SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

Learn more at http://greenchallenge.c4spgh.org or email Amanda Virbitsky.

Sustainable Insight: Pittsburgh TODAY and Sustainable Pittsburgh bring you the latest regional sustainability indicator

This week: Mixed Economic News-- a range of insightful indicators. Think sustainably. Contemplate the possible linkages and systems at play. Learn more by clicking here.

Events Continued

Resources

Information Forum: Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission –
Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) Update and CMAQ Program Development and Management

Monday, September 19
9:30 – Noon
Regional Enterprise Tower, 31st floor
No fee to attend
Pre-registration to: info@sustainablepittsburgh.org or (412) 258-6642. Please provide full contact information.
Please note that photo identification is required to enter the Regional Enterprise Tower. Please allow extra time for security in the lobby.
Webcast Available: This forum will also be available as a live webcast. Space is limited. Please contact Tom Straw (tstraw@spcregion.org) at SPC by noon Thursday September 15 if you are interested in logging on to the forum.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) is now focused on developing the region’s 2013-2016 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). The TIP serves to identify needed regional transportation investments over a four-year period that support the region’s Long Range Transportation and Development Plan within fiscal constraint. A visible element of the TIP development process will be the recommended program of projects for the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program (CMAQ).

Come learn about these important regional processes for prioritizing needed transportation improvements. Gain insight in what it takes to get a project ready for the TIP and in particular learn about the CMAQ funding process and project eligibility.

This information forum, being presented by SPC in cooperation with Sustainable Pittsburgh, is timely given that both the TIP update process and CMAQ project selection process are just beginning. At the forum, staff will highlight TIP update activity, present the process and schedule for developing and managing the CMAQ Program, and engage participants in a lively Q&A session including opportunity for attendees to discuss potential project ideas in an informal, rapid-fire session with SPC staff.

SAVE THE DATE: Transportation Funding Issues Facing Pennsylvania - Lunch with PennDOT Deputy Secretary Jim Ritzman

Tuesday, September 20
11:30 am - 1:00 pm
Downtown Location - details to follow
RSVP Reserve your seat today! http://www.otma-pgh.org/TFAC-Lunch

Join the Southwestern Pennsylvania TMAs - ACTA, OTMA, and PDP - for a discussion with PennDOT Deputy Secretary, Jim Ritzman, about Transportation Funding Issues Facing Pennsylvania.

This event is sponsored by Airport Corridor Transportation Association, the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, and the Oakland Transportation Management Association. Co-Sponsors for this event are Allegheny Conference on Community Development and Sustainable Pittsburgh.

Current Trends in Sustainable Communities
4th Annual Sustainability Conference

Thursday, September 22
8:00 am – 4:00 pm
Phipps Conservatory
ASCEE/EWRI/Sustainable Pittsburgh (C4S) Members: $120
Non-members: $150; Students: $30
Breakfast and Lunch Included
All attendees will receive a certificate for 6.0 Professional Development Hours
For more information: including registration, visit www.asce-pgh.org or contact Bob Dengler at (412) 922-5575 or rdengler@GFNET.com
To view the flyer, see page 4 of this newsletter

The Pittsburgh Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Environmental Water and Resources Institute (EWRI), and Sustainable Pittsburgh’s Champions for Sustainability (C4S) are hosting a daylong conference on Current Trends in Sustainable Communities. The conference features keynote PA Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer. Topics include: ASCE’s Institute for Sustainability Report Card for Engineering Projects; Sustainable Infrastructure in Masdar City, United Arab Emirates; Marcellus Shale Impacts and Opportunities; and Sustainable Transportation Community Assessments. The conference ends with a presentation and tour of the Center for Sustainable Landscapes at Phipps Conservatory.

Creating Sustainable Communities Conference

Thursday, November 3
7:30 am — 4:00 pm
Point Park University
Registration: $30
Questions? Contact Hannah Hardy at (412) 481–9400 or hhardy@pecpa.org Registration information and conference schedule will be available in late August at:
www.dcnr.state.pa.us/conservationscience/sustainablelands/conferences/index.htm
This conference qualifies for 5 recertification credits for the PLNA Pennsylvania Certified Horticulturist and the PLANET Landscape Industry Certified Technician, as well as 5 continuing education credits through ASLA.

Join conference organizers at Point Park University in downtown Pittsburgh for a conference that promotes green infrastructure, healthy communities and low-cost land management practices for government officials, park managers, landscape architects, planners and anyone else interested in balancing human needs with natural resource protection.

EVENT ORGANIZERS: Allegheny County, Allegheny County Conservation District, City of Pittsburgh, Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources, Friends of the Riverfront, Pa. Environmental Council, Penn State Cooperative Extension, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, Sustainable Pittsburgh, Western Pa. Conservancy

SAVE THE DATE: 11th Annual SWPA Smart Growth Conference “Smart Growth is Smart Business”

Tuesday, December 13
Downtown Pittsburgh - Location TBD
Featuring: Henry Cisneros, Executive Chairman, CityView

This year's conference will launch a 'businesses for smart growth' initiative in southwestern Pennsylvania. Filling a strategic gap, the event will solidify the bottom line business case and economic imperative for regional smart growth and galvanize business constituency.

Business leaders around the nation increasingly recognize that regional growth and development patterns -- guided by principles of smart growth and sustainability -- improve quality of life, lessen the cost of doing business, increase profitability, help reduce tax and infrastructure costs, and contribute to talent recruitment and retention.

Time is ripe for a business initiative focused on advancing our region's goals for more efficient and sustainable development to spur economic prosperity and extend this region's signature livability to more persons. The bottom line business case of smart growth is apparent.

Mark your calendars as the Smart Growth Conference is an invitation to address the ways smart growth is smart business:
- engage the private sector in harnessing smart growth market opportunity
- explore innovative means of ensuring financial feasibility of sustainable development
- channel the pattern and character of growth and development to improve productivity and hasten regional sustainability that protects and enhances business investments
- opportunities to have an impact on state, regional, and local planning and programming
- incentives to level the field for development and redevelopment to revitalize our existing communities
- the new economics nexus of land use, transportation, housing, and development

Keynote speaker Henry Cisneros is the executive chairman of CityView, an urban institutional investment firm which finances commercial and residential developers. His governmental experience and dedication to America's cities are important features of CityView's "Smart Capital for Smart Growth" strategy focused on urban solutions. Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in New York, Dallas and San Antonio, CityView has invested in and developed more than $2 billion in real estate assets for 45 projects in 30 markets across 13 states since 2003. CityView is one of the nation's premier institutional investment firms focused on urban real estate, incity housing, and metropolitan infrastructure and is a fully-integrated operating company with an active management approach. Prior to establishing CityView, Henry Cisneros served as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and was the four-term Mayor of San Antonio, Texas.

The 11th Annual SWPA Smart Growth Conference is presented by:
Allegheny Conference on Community Development; Green Building Alliance; NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, Pittsburgh Chapter; Pittsburgh Technology Council; Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission; Sustainable Pittsburgh; Urban Land Institute Pittsburgh District Council

Join the Hollow Oak Land Trust in upcoming stewardship activities

Sunday, September 11
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Montour Trail parking lot on Hassam Road
Contact: Janet Thorne at jthorne@hollowoak.org

Join the Hollow Oak Land Trust in its second attack on Japanese knotweed on the Montour Woods Conservation Area this year. Volunteers will meet at the Montour Trail parking lot on Hassam Road. Be sure to bring gloves and shoes you won’t mind getting wet in Meeks Run.

Another upcoming event is on Sunday, October 2, from 2 pm to 4 pm. This is a walk of the Fifer’s Fields Conservation Area. This wonderful old farm has great diversity. Join the Hollow Oak Land Trust for a stroll through a variety of vegetation found in large fields, around a pond, through a pine woods, and in other forested areas.

"Fighting for Air," hosted by the Economic Club of Pittsburgh

Thursday, September 15
11:45 am – 1:15 pm
The Omni William Penn, 530 William Penn Place, Downtown Pittsburgh
COST: Members: $35; Non-Members; $45; Students: $20
Tables of 8 available for $250
Reservations are required.
Please make reservations by email to reservations@econclubpgh.org no later than September 12, 2011. If you find that you cannot attend or arrange for an associate to attend, please cancel by September 12, 2011 or you will be billed for the cost of the luncheon. Please call (412) 762-2671 for cancellations. Please pay at the door, by cash or check made payable to “The Economic Club of Pittsburgh.”
More information

The Economic Club of Pittsburgh presents Charles Dean Connor, President and Chief Executive Officer, American Lung Association. “Fighting For Air” – Questions abound across the country, and particularly here in Pittsburgh, over the health effects of air pollution, the need for cleanup and the role of the government as the Environmental Protection Agency works to revise outdated air pollution limits. Charles Connor, national President and CEO of the American Lung Association, will explore the clean air debate from a health perspective, and how Pittsburgh’s long history of fighting for clean, healthy air serves today a perfect microcosm of the entire debate. He will discuss the state of Pittsburgh’s air, air pollution’s local toll in medical costs and premature death, and steps needed to reduce that toll.

The Economic Club of Pittsburgh is a local chapter of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE). Since its inception, the Economic Club of Pittsburgh has played an important role in the community, provided the membership and the public with a better understanding of the many regional, national and global issues that impact everyone. Its monthly meetings, featuring a guest speaker followed by open discussion, are open to the public.

Allegheny Green + Innovation Festival

Saturday, September 24
11:00 am – 5:00 pm
Hartwood Amphitheater, Middle Road
Rain or shine
More information

Come to the Allegheny Green & Innovation Festival at Hartwood Acres and learn about sustainable living and innovation in all forms. This zero-waste event will include earth-friendly food & product vendors, crafters, green living demonstrations, musical entertainment, children’s activities & much more! NEW FOR 2011 – This event will be held on the same day as the event Hay Day (a family focused event that draws approximately 3,000 attendees).

Get Involved! Building Change Conference

Building Change: a convergence for social justice
October 13-15, 2011
Senator John Heinz Regional History Center
More information

Join the Three Rivers Community Foundation (TRCF) for a conference like no other: skill-building workshops, panel discussions, community dialogues on key issues, speakers, actions, art, films, roundtable talks, networking, entertainment, and more!

Key issues being discussed: Disability Rights, Economic Justice, Environmental Justice, LGBTO Rights, Peace/Human Rights, Racial Justice, and Women, Youth and Families Issues.

TRCF is looking for more co-sponsors for the Convergence! Please spread the word to organizations and individuals working for social change. Direct interested parties to trcf@trcfwpa.org or (412) 243-9250.

Deadline for Arts, Films, and Performances has been extended to July 15th.

Fifth Annual Beard Symposium
Sustainable Business: Responsibility and Results

Thursday, November 10
8:00 am- 2:30 pm
Fairmont Hotel, 510 Market St., Downtown Pittsburgh 15222
More information

Business has entered a new era of responsibility and accountability. In addition to producing solid financial results, business leaders are now responsible for managing their company’s environmental and social impacts, as well as addressing the expectations of stakeholders including legislators, investors, customers and employees.

By embracing these increased responsibilities, business leaders can foster their employees’ creativity and innovation – leading to resource and waste efficiencies, cost savings, new market opportunities, greater bottom-line results and a more sustainable future for the world.

Executives, entrepreneurs, management professionals and community leaders who have a stake in the region’s business future will discuss how sustainability-driven management practices increase competitive advantage and profitability.

Attendees will:
- Discover a “systems approach” to sustainability that boosts creativity and innovation
- Interact with business leaders who have increased bottom-line results by embracing sustainability best-practices
- Learn how to gain competitive advantage in a more sustainability-driven business environment

Resources

Road open: Now is the time for fixing state transportation

It's important to get the plan off the drawing board and onto the legislative agenda of the General Assembly. At a public hearing Thursday in Cranberry, speaker after speaker urged quick enactment of the commission's recommendations. . . Mr. Corbett, who is said to be studying the recommendations, must voice his support soon for this bipartisan effort. Waiting until next year to adopt the commission's recommendations is not an option. Sadly, there's very little prospect that skittish lawmakers will enact increases in fees or taxes in 2012, when they'll be worried more about their re-elections than Pennsylvania's future.

Measuring Transportation Investments

Growing interest at both the federal and state levels in measuring performance and outcomes is a sign of progress. And solutions exist: Across the country, state leaders have developed proven approaches to using results-based data to drive transportation spending and policies and to ensure their decisions advance economic growth and other important goals. This report profiles many of these approaches. Even states that are “leading the way” in our assessment, performing relatively better than other states, have room for improvement. . .The goal of this assessment of the 50 states and Washington, DC, is to identify which are doing the best in terms of having essential tools in place to make cost-effective transportation funding and policy choices-—and to help lawmakers understand how to use these tools to do a better job with limited dollars.

More

How to wring more savings from your utility bills

Energy costs can be hair-raising. An October survey by Kelton Research of New York found the average American pays $374 per month for home utilities. When sorted by region, Northeasterners are hit the hardest, with an average monthly bill of $452. For Bob Harris, the survey's scariest finding was a much smaller number: 37. That's the percentage of people who think it's impossible to find better rates for utilities. "People don't believe it's possible to get a better deal on essential home services," said Mr. Harris, the chief executive officer of WhiteFence.com, a cost-comparing website that searches for the best local deals on monthly expenses like energy and Internet service.

Fracking's thirst for water: a delicate dance between gas industry and river commission

Chesapeake's pump station, drawing water from an intake buried on the riverbed, fills five towering 21,000-gallon tanks nearby, while a parade of trucks waits to fill up at four adjacent computer-controlled stations. It takes about 10 minutes to fill a 3,360-gallon tanker truck. Tractor-trailer tankers, which hold 4,620 gallons, take a little longer. When the metered withdrawals reach the site's daily limit of about 1 million gallons -- that's enough to fill more than 200 trucks -- the system automatically shuts down until midnight. . . The commission estimates that the industry, based on projected drilling, will need about 30 million gallons a day. By comparison, suppliers of public water in the basin consume 325 million gallons a day and power plants require 190 million gallons a day for coolant. A single nuclear reactor proposed in Luzerne County would require 30 million gallons of water a day.

Allegheny Grows works for urban farms, gardens

Allegheny County officials announced Monday that they are looking for applications from more municipalities and neighborhood groups interested in participating in the third year of the program. Communities and organizations selected will get gardening supplies and technical support for two years. . . "Allegheny Grows teaches communities how to develop and operate urban farms and community food gardens," he said in a statement. They create "a catalyst for community development, job training, environmental stewardship and youth education."

Organise an energy race and companies will come

Stigson, here for the Australia Davos Connection's annual Hayman Island retreat, brings a message that is all about the green race: who will dominate the future world economy? The prize is increased share of a market which council member PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates will be $US500 billion to $US 1.5 trillion ($478 million to $1434 billion) annually by 2020, rising to $US3 trillion to $US10 trillion annually by 2050. . . "This is about competition. If we believe that we can address climate change just by having climate negotiations and government trying to do this by regulation, that is not going to be sufficient. What the world needs is another type of partnership between governments and business to drive innovative forces." Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/organise-an-energy-race-and-companies-will-come-20110826-1je80.html#ixzz1WYPUkwfS

Universal Principles for Creating a Sustainable City

Freiburg, Germany has become a stunning model of sustainability, thanks in part to Wulf Daseking, the city's Head of Urban Planning since 1984. Sven Eberlein visits Daseking in Freiberg for this interview.

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 ($1,000 and up) in 2011 from:

Allegheny County - Dan Onorato, County Executive
Bayer Corporation
Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation
BNY Mellon
Dollar Bank
FedEx Ground
The Heinz Endowments
Highmark
Elsie H. Hillman Foundation
Richard King Mellon Foundation
Pashek Associates LTD
Pittsburgh Quarterly
PNC Financial Services Group
Port Authority of Allegheny County
UPMC


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