A Step in the Right Direction: Pittsburgh

It is to my greatest joy to announce that as of July 13, the Pittsburgh City Council passed a clean-air bill, updating the last clean-air bill passed 70 years ago. Accompanying this bill is another which will requires the city to install pollution-control devices on all of its diesel vehicles within the next 10 years.

This is an exciting time for Pittsburgh because not only does the passing of this bill mean that a new era is beginning, but also that Pittsburgh is taking crucial steps to improve the quality of life for its people!

The bill will require contractors of city-subsidized developments to install pollution-control equipment for on-road diesel equipment by January 1st of 2012 and off-road by 2013. This means that by the time the years of 2012 and 2013 roll around, all vehicles such as trucks, buses, and other heavy-duty vehicles must have pollution-control equipment installed. However this requirement only applies to projects that use at least $250,000 in city subsidies, and have a total cost of over $2.5 million.

The legislation was supported by the bill’s sponsor, Councilman Bill Peduto, environmentalists, and a variety of different unions and community groups. And though the bill was approved and supported by many on the council, one councilmen, Ricky Burgess had some misgivings, believing that it would have a minimal impact on air standards and prevent investments in troubled neighborhoods.

In the end however, the bill was approved with a vote of 8-0.

Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11194/1160007-53.stm#ixzz1S5Rx9eln

Composition of a Sustainable Community

What Makes A Sustainable Community:

In order to create a sustainable community one must first start at the source of the problem. This source can be anything which is not making a community sustainable.  Unfortunately, in most cases, that source is us, or to be exact, our lifestyle and culture.

Or, as Walt Kelly put it in his comic strip Pogo, “We have met the enemy…and he is us”

Now we know what the problem is, but…how do we fix it?

Well to fix it, first you have to figure out what makes a sustainable community..well…sustainable! And once you find that answer you’ll be on your way to making a community more sustainable.

I have read a couple of chapters from the books Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change by Peter Calthorpe, and Sustainable Urbanism Urban Design with Nature by Douglas Farr. I have discovered the four main things in which makes a community sustainable.

Those four things are…

• Urbanism
• Conservationism
• Healthy Lifestyles
• Diversity

And each of these four things have its own part in making a community sustainable.

Urbanism is the process that drives people to come live in the city. Without urban planning there would be no people, and without people, there would be no city.

Healthy Lifestyles are the product of a sustainable community, for if you are healthy, which means being active, the community is healthy

Conservation is the protection, preservation or restoration of something. Without conservation we would consume more than what the earth can supply, thus not only destroy the earth, but ourselves as well.

Diversity could also be a product of a sustainable community. Diversity is the process of the acceptance or tolerance of differences, so if a community accepts these differences then they would be more open to new and different ideas that might make a community more sustainable.

As you can see, creating a sustainable community is  no joke. It takes more than a few encouraging words or actions in order to get the job done. Not to mention a lot of time.  However, as long as you have these four things in mind  then you should have no problem in making your community more sustainable.

Monaca, A Model for Sustainability

Why is Monaca today’s featured post? The reason is they said yes to almost every question on the Sustainable Pittsburgh’s checklist of ways municipalities can save more, waste less and develop themselves sustainably. If that doesn’t deserve recognition, then how about the fact that Monaca was one in about two handful of municipalities that did so?

Monaca is a small town located in Beaver County which is home to about 6,000 residents. It may be because of these residents that it stood out so much. Well, them and the Monaca Borough manager, Mario Leone, that is.

Mario Leone is exactly the kind of borough manager we are looking to highlight. Not only is he concerned and knowledgeable about sustainability in his community, but he is pragmatic about it too. In Diana Nelson Jones’s interview, he said, “I want to be a good environmental steward. I want a sustainable community for my children. But the driving factor is economic.” It is all well and good to have innovative programs that improve the sustainability of the community, but finances must be considered in order for the idea to have any traction. 

Mr. Leone, with the backing of the Monaca council, has been busy securing grants to help pay for upgrades that will make municipal systems more efficient, saving the local government money at a low initial cost. In this new era when all governments are scrambling to balance budgets, why not make systems more efficient instead of axing vital programs? For example, Monaca installed a wireless water metering systems which will pay for itself in the coming years by reducing maintenance costs. Diana’s interview mentioned that Monaca now has GPS devices devices that wirelessly monitor each vehicle’s gas usage and mileage. This is exactly the kind of program that we would be interested in funding with our Vehicle for Change grant. Hopefully we will hear more from Monaca in the future!

 

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11184/1157941-57-0.stm#ixzz1RF9O8ihT

Monaca’s web site: http://monacapa.net/

 

 

 

Welcome to the Green southwestern PA blog!

credit: http://geoparent.sheknows.com/articles/159/10-pennsylvania-festivals-and-seasonal-activities-1

Hello! Our names are Ethan Busis, Mercedes Velasquez, and Anna Koebley, the three Heinz interns creating this blog. Our goal is to create text and video posts highlighting efforts that southwestern Pennsylvanian municipalities are doing to make their communities more sustainable. We hope that these creative ideas will inspire other municipal governments to start their own programs, as well as inform citizens how they can help with their efforts.
We plan to release a blog post once or twice a week from now until mid August.  Sometimes we will have a video included in our post or pictures.  Our main goal of this blog is to showcase efforts of the municipalities in southwest Pennsylvania.  Sustainable Pittsburgh has released a Rapid Assessment, found here, in which municipalities responded to 14 main areas of sustainability.  Some municipalities responded with responses that varied from yes, no, and not sure that they have done that effort.

Throughout the summer we will interview municipal government leaders who are making strides to make their communities more sustainable. When possible, we will go out and record interviews, as well as film their projects. We will edit and post this footage for all to see.

The Heinz Endowments Program is an internship that grants 36 high-school students the chance to work to improve their community by developing and implementing a youth philanthropy project. This summer the Heinz Endowments interns are working together with different organizations such as Sustainable Pittsburgh, United Way, Student Conservation Association, and various other organizations to research issues affecting youth and their communities, identify service priorities and then develop funding guidelines and proposals in order to solve these issues.

Another aspect of the Heinz internship program is developing a request for proposals, and then give a grant of 25,000 (sponsored by the Heinz Endowments) to one or more municipal governments. Our grant is focusing on making municipal vehicle fleets more sustainable, either through education, alternative fuels, alternative transportation or through other means. We are currently writing our request for proposals, and we will update the blog later with more information as we progress through the grant giving process.

Thanks for checking us out!