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Events

Sustainable Pittsburgh Heinz Interns work to bring youth outdoors via blog and grant program

The Heinz Endowments Summer Youth Philanthropy interns have been busy this summer sharing information through their blog, Guide to Pittsburgh's Sustainable Green Spaces. This blog complements the current funding opportunity for municipalities to encourage youth in spending more time outdoors through stewardship of greenspace.

Does your community have greenspace that needs an upgrade or some TLC? Interested in engaging youth to become more involved?

Called “Bring Youth Outdoors”, this funding opportunity aims to help municipalities* while creating positive experiences for youth outdoors through educational workshops, recreation, and volunteering. By getting outdoors, youth are exposed to health benefits of outdoor time as well as greater awareness and appreciation of their community.

A total of $25,000 in grant funding is available for awards to municipalities that aim to meet the interns’ project goals. Reminder: The deadline to apply is August Monday, August 3 at 9:00 am.

View the "Bring Youth Outdoors" RFP*

The application process consists of two parts:
1) First the municipality must complete and submit an application via The Heinz Endowments online form.
2) Next, the applicant must review and answer the questions listed in the Request for Proposals. These answers should then be included with the online form as an attachment.

For questions, please contact the lead Heinz Intern at Sustainable Pittsburgh, Liz Vargo, at evargo@heinzinterns.org.
*Eligible are municipalities that have earned or pledged to earn the Sustainable Pennsylvania Community Certification.

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Resources

Insights on Energy Efficiency

Monday, August 10
6:15 pm - 7:30 pm (following Millvale Borough Development Corporation meeting)
Millvale Community Center, 416 Lincoln Ave, Millvale
Free to attend
More information

Join Millvale Borough Development Corporation, Millvale Community Library, Conservation Consultants, Inc. and Sustainable Pittsburgh for an evening focused on small businesses and information about:
· Energy Efficiency
· Cost Savings
· Sustainable Business Networking
· Sustainable Small Business Designation

This event will be an opportunity to find out about strategies for energy efficiency and weatherization, network with fellow small business owners, and to learn how your business can become part of the SWPA Sustainable Small Business Designation program.

Featured Speakers:
Zaheen Hussain, Sustainability Coordinator, Millvale Community Library
Jeaneen Zappa, Executive Director, Conservation Consultants Inc.

SAVE THE DATE! 8/27 Green Workplace Challenge Workshop #9: "Air Quality"

Thursday, August 27
Learn more about the Green Workplace Challenge at gwcpgh.org

Join Sustainable Pittsburgh for the ninth workshop of the 2014-2015 Pittsburgh Green Workplace Challenge (GWC)! The GWC is a yearlong competition for employers in southwestern Pennsylvania to track and measure performance in energy, water, waste, and transportation. This workshop will focus on air quality in our region.

Biophilia: Pittsburgh August Meeting

Thursday, August 6
5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Center for Sustainable Landscapes classroom at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
Free to attend; advance registration is required. RSVP via email or sign up on our Meetup page.
More information

The Aug. 6 Biophilia: Pittsburgh meeting will feature Robert S. Mulvihill, the National Aviary’s ornithologist, who will introduce the discussion topic, "Getting Up Close and Scientific with Pittsburgh's Birds." Perhaps more than any other natural history subjects, birds help connect people with nature, and ornithology has a long history of contribution by citizen scientists. In 2013, Mulvihill brought the Smithsonian Institution's Neighborhood Nestwatch project to Pittsburgh. He and his crew study the impacts of urbanization on a selection of common songbird species — northern cardinal, American robin, song sparrow, black-capped or Carolina chickadee, gray catbird, northern mockingbird, Carolina wren, and house wren — through annual summer visits to nearly 150 backyards in the Greater Pittsburgh area, including the backyard bird habitat of Phipps' executive director, Richard V. Piacentini. Mulvihill will talk about this and the National Aviary's other research and conservation projects.

Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival

Saturday, August 8
6:30 pm - 10:00 pm
Ohiopyle Community Center, 15 Sherman Street
Cost: $15 (cash only; includes 1 drink ticket)
More information

Join the Mountain Watershed Association for the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival. This event will feature live music from The Joint Commission, great food and drinks (craft brews from Bloom Brew, located right on the Yough in West Newton), and nine awesome films with an environmental and outdoor theme.

The Wild & Scenic Film Festival was started by the watershed advocacy group, the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL), in 2003. Over the past 13 years it has evolved into the largest environmental film festival in the nation.

SPC Information Forum for CMAQ Candidate Sponsors: Applications due September 1

Tuesday, August 11
9:30 am – Noon
Two Chatham Center, 4th Floor, Downtown Pittsburgh
No fee to attend
Presented by Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission and Sustainable Pittsburgh
Pre-registration: mbrangan@spcregion.org or (412) 391-5590 x315. Please provide full contact information.
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 Tuesday, August 4 if you are interested in logging on to the forum.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) is developing the region’s 2017-2020 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). The TIP serves to identify needed regional transportation investments over a four-year period that support Mapping the Future: The Southwestern PA Plan, 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). The CMAQ Program will be the focus of this information forum for potential CMAQ candidate project applicants.

Come learn about the regional process for prioritizing CMAQ eligible transportation improvements. Gain insight into what it takes to get a CMAQ candidate project ready for the TIP competition for limited funds. In particular learn about the CMAQ funding process, project eligibility, and how to set realistic and attainable milestones for project deliverability.

This information forum, presented by SPC in cooperation with Sustainable Pittsburgh, is timely given that the CMAQ project selection process for the TIP update is just beginning. At the forum staff will highlight CMAQ 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 an opportunity for attendees to discuss potential candidate project ideas in an informal session with SPC staff.

CMAQ Application Period: The CMAQ application period will open on Friday July 31, 2015. The deadline for submitting completed applications is Tuesday, September 1, 2015 at 4:00pm. Additional information about the CMAQ application process and a copy of the application package will be available on the SPC website (www.spcregion.org) on July 31.

Our Landscape Today: Community Impact Summit

Saturday, September 12
8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Washington & Jefferson College
Free and Open to the Public
For more information and questions call (724)-229-3550 or E-mail eva@coalfieldjustice.org.
Registration

The Center for Coalfield Justice will host a community-wide “Our Landscape Today – Community Impact Summit” on September 12. Landscape Today is a project designed to create an understanding of the environmental and public health issues that residents face due to coal and natural gas extraction. This summit is an opportunity for residents to share their own knowledge with local and regional community members, organizers, experts, and leaders.

Register Today! Living Product Expo and Conference

September 16-18, 2015
David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh PA 15222
Cost:Living Future Members $620, Non-Members $820 (Full Three Day Pass)
www.livingproductexpo.org/

The Living Product Challenge re-imagines the design and manufacture of products to function as elegantly and efficiently as anything found in the natural world. Living Products are informed by biomimicry and biophilia; manufactured by processes powered only by renewable energy and within the water balance of the places they are made.

Join the Living Futures Institute for the inaugural Living Product Expo in Pittsburgh, PA. The Expo is a groundbreaking new event that will bring together leading minds in the product industry and ignite a revolution in the way materials are designed, manufactured and delivered.

Featured speakers:
Arlene Blum, Executive Director of the Green Science Policy Institute
Jeffrey Hollender, Co-Founder & CEO, Hollender Sustainable Brands LLC
Bill Strickland, President and CEO of the Manchester Bidwell Corporation
John Warner, President The Warner Babcock Institute For Green Chemistry

Who should attend?
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) managers, sustainability directors, business leaders, product designers, industrial engineers, professors, and students.

Note special event session: Friday, September 18, 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm:

Convening Summit: Pittsburgh Region Brainstorm - Accelerating Living Product Capacities in Southwestern Pennsylvania
Hosted by Sustainable Pittsburgh Champions for Sustainability (C4S) business network and Green Building Alliance
The next chapter for the Pittsburgh region goes deeper: Much of the Expo has been about an evolving ecosystem where entrepreneurship, advanced design, and sustainability converge. This convergence positions manufacturing to build sustainability-oriented, high-value-added market opportunities. Come to this “Convening Summit” to contribute to planning for what comes next from Pittsburgh's hosting the Expo.

Resources

Funding opportunity for municipalities - applications due Aug. 3 at 9am

Does your community have greenspace that needs an upgrade or some TLC? Interested in engaging youth to become more involved?

The Heinz Endowments Summer Youth Philanthropy interns based at Sustainable Pittsburgh, in collaboration with SP and Local Government Academy, are please to present “Bring Youth Outdoors”, a funding opportunity that aims to help municipalities while creating positive experiences for youth outdoors through educational workshops, recreation, and volunteering.

By getting outdoors, youth are exposed to health benefits of outdoor time as well as greater awareness and appreciation of their community. A total of $25,000 in grant funding is available for awards to municipalities that aim to meet the interns’ project goals. The deadline to apply is August Monday, August 3 at 9:00 am.

View the "Bring Youth Outdoors" RFP*
The application process consists of two parts:
1) First the municipality must complete and submit an application via The Heinz Endowments online form.
2) Next, the applicant must review and answer the questions listed in the Request for Proposals. These answers should then be included with the online form as an attachment.

For questions, please contact the lead Heinz Intern at Sustainable Pittsburgh, Liz Vargo, at evargo@heinzinterns.org.
*Eligible are municipalities that have earned or pledged to earn the Sustainable Pennsylvania Community Certification.

Pittsburgh Restaurants Serving Up Sustainability

Pittsburgh restaurant owners, chefs and farmers have teamed with Sustainable Pittsburgh to launch the Sustainable Pittsburgh Restaurant program, which recognizes southwestern PA restaurants for their efforts in operating energy efficient and socially responsible establishments, especially as the city’s eateries garner increasing national attention.

The restaurant industry is the second largest private-sector employer in the United States, and by implementing sustainable practices such as waste reduction, water conservation and energy efficiency, the impact it has on the nation is crucial, said Rebecca Bykoski, program manager at Sustainable Pittsburgh.

More

Google Street View to map urban air pollution

The cars can measure the presence of nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, black carbon, particulate matter and Volatile Organic Compounds in the surrounding environment, providing a detailed picture of local air quality. . . Governments around the world are under mounting pressure to get a better view of air pollution levels in their cities, following a series of health studies that have shown many thousands of people are dying prematurely each year as a result of poor air quality.

h magazine - latest issue chock full of great articles including p4 Summit overview

The next issue of h magazine contains great features including a thorough recap of the p4 Summit held in April: Pittsburgh civic and nonprofit leaders have introduced a new model for urban revitalization that builds on the insights of experts in sustainability and innovation. This special, four-part report describes how the p4 initiative - launched at an international summit co-hosted by The Heinz Endowments and the City of Pittsburgh - addresses people, planet, place and performance issues to improve redevelopment: o "Forging a Vision"
o "View from the Summit"
o "Nordic Connection"
o "Putting p4 into Practice"

Pittsburgh Celebrated In Study Of Innovative Transportation Policies

TransitCenter, a group that advocates for public transit and comprehensive transportation policies, released a report this week profiling Pittsburgh among six innovative U.S. cities for transportation policy planning.

Inside China's shift to a low-carbon economy

The direction outlined by the Chinese government — to peak the country’s carbon-dioxide emissions around 2030 or likely earlier — is ground-breaking, both in the scale of proposed emissions reductions, and when viewed within the wider trend of substantial GHG reductions pledged by major economies.

The message to business is clear: The building blocks of a low-carbon economy are being put in place.

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 2015 from:

Alcoa Foundation
Bayer USA Foundation
Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation
BNY Mellon
FedEx Ground
The Heinz Endowments
Elsie H. Hillman Foundation
Henry L. Hillman Foundation
Levin Furniture
Richard King Mellon Foundation
Pashek Associates, LTD
PITT OHIO
The PNC Financial Services Group
UPMC


Special thanks to the SP Members

Sustainable Pittsburgh
307 Fourth Avenue, Suite 1500
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 258-6642
fax (412) 258-6645
E-mail SP