Green Cities Sustainability Corps 2010
Program Manger: Lori Gaido Project Dates: Feb 2010 - Dec 2010 Email Address: lgaido@thesca.org
June: Claire Miziolek
GTECH STRATEGIES
Sustainable Community Fellow
June was a busy month here at GTECH! We finished our sunflower plantings, moved into the season of maintenance, and continued pushing forward green economy initiatives! In June, I:
Reclamation Projects
--Attended weekly reclamation meetings.
--Planted sunflowers in Sharpsburg with about 10 local residents on 6/5
--Planted sunflowers in Wilkinsburg at our Peebles St. site in terrible rain with a team of about 6 on 6/5. Finished the job with another team of about 6 on 6/10
--Planted sunflowers in E. Liberty at our Pennley site on 6/14
--Prepped, spread compost, and planted sunflowers with a group of 15 Braddock youth on 6/16, 6/18, 6/21, and 6/22
--Helped build garden beds and spread compost on our Francis St. Project in the Hill on 6/16
--Tilled the land on our Francis St. Project in the Hill on 6/17
--Planted sunflowers in Elizabeth with over 40 kids, ages 10 and under, on 6/17
--Helped fill beds with soil at the Francis St. Project in the hill on 6/19
--Planted sunflowers in E. Liberty on our Shecona site with about 12 community members on 6/22
Education:
--Taught a biofuels lesson to 4 classes (about 80 students) at City High on 6/11
--Taught lessons on Biofuels, Green Jobs, Urban Soils, and Land Use with the same group of 15 Braddock youth over the course of 6/16, 6/18, 6/21, and 6/22
--Helped lead a garden tour of SCA youth and others through the East End on 6/19
--Gave a presentation on Green Jobs for a group youth on 6/25 (helped out on 6/24)
--Discussed community and vacancy with the group of youth on 6/24 and 6/25
Communication:
--Figured out vendor, pricing, labels, and logistics to make signs for all of our sites.
--Went down to the printer, got 18 signs and about 50 partner labels made.
--Sent out the June GTECH Newsletter
--Gave a presentation on my work with GTECH to an Americorps representative.
--Spoke about GTECH with a group on a bike tour through E. Liberty on 6/18
Green Economy Initiatives
--Attended and took notes on the Green Jobs Advisory Board meeting on 6/1
--Attended and took notes on the Regional Task Force meeting on 6/8
--Attended and took notes on the Job Readiness Roundtable meeting on 6/10
--Attended and took notes on the GJAB Events and Outreach committee meeting on 6/15
--Took the lead on planning a July event, Green Jobs: Exploring the Opportunities in Braddock.
I also took a vacation to Alaska for the last week of June.
April: Jamie Eberl
COUNTY OF ALLEGHENY
SUSTAINABILITY FELLOW
Green House Gas Emissions Inventory
Edited final document and power point slides
Researched and resolved outstanding issues
Recycling
Partnered with PRC to research recycling practices in all County-owned/leased properties,
attempted to establish baseline analysis of recycling programs
Events
Earth Day - Employee Energy Fair in Courthouse Courtyard
Coordinated the attendance of representatives from local power companies to distribute
energy savings kits to employees
77 employees signed the County Sustainability Pledge
35 people signed up with Black and Gold City Goes Green campaign
Recycling event
Partnered with Global links to collect medical supplies for Haiti
Collected 109 pairs of crutches, 65 canes, 22 wheelchairs, 36 walkers and various other
medical supplies for reuse
Regional Water Symposium
Assisted in planning and recruiting attendees from surrounding municipalities that have a
stake in regional wet weather issues
Grants
Maintained and updated database of funding opportunities
Conferences Attended
Women’s Health and the Environment Conference
June: Adam Fedeski
PITTSBURGH PARKS CONSERVANCY
SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY FELLOW
June has been yet another exciting month. Our Walks in the Woods programs have begun. They are volunteer docent-led walks every Wednesday evening that take place in each of the four city parks: Riverview, Highland, Frick and Schenley (Go here for the schedule of walks). I prepared a packet for each of the docents, which included natural and cultural history facts, as well as things to do and the volunteer opportunities for each park. I also provided them with interesting historical photos, maps, and postcards to enhance the experience for those attending the walks. Shortly after my evaluation at the beginning of the month, my wish to become further involved in environmental education activities at the PPC was granted. Here are a few highlights from the month:
June 4- Worked with 36 members of the Americorps Literacy group on their site in Highland Park to fix deer exclosure fencing, remove 47 bags of garlic mustard, 3 tires, and plant 23 tree seedlings in open canopy areas.
June 6- Mitzvah Day with eleven members of Temple Sinai. We worked on removing invasive vines and garlic mustard in upper Frick Park.
June 11- City High Charter School Urban EcoStewards session. We worked with the students to implement erosion control techniques on the upper hillside of their site in Schenley Park. We secured jute netting in open areas, a biodegradable net that helps to keep the soil in place while attempting to grow vegetation there.
June 24- This was my favorite day of the month. In the morning, Marijke and I led a walk in Schenley Park for 8 and 9 year olds from the Carnegie Science Center Summer Camp. The walk focused on the importance of native plants and watersheds and included TWO scavenger hunts (one at the stream, one in the woods)! In the afternoon, I met up with Lori Gaido and a group of recent high school graduates who are serving internships through the Heinz Endowment Fund. I gave an informal presentation on the history of the PPC, the scope and importance of their work, and what I do at the PPC. That evening, I went to a pruning and invasive species workshop for PTAG volunteers in Frick Park. It was co-led by Matt from Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest and Erin from the PPC. I helped to coordinate schedules and set up the time and details for this event, and I even learned some things by attending it!
June 25- The final session of High School UES with City High. While all of their previous sessions focused on stewardship activities, this session was devoted to walking through the park to explore the nature that they had been working to protect this winter and spring. We also spent time brainstorming for their final projects, which will be presented at the end of the year picnic on July 9! I am very excited for their presentations. They are a fun group.
June 29- My first PPC blog was posted, recapping the spring volunteer season with pictures galore! If you have a keen eye, you can find three of the other Green Cities fellows in these pictures (one of them is close to impossible unless you know what his hair and clothes looks like!)
http://pittsburghparks.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/spring-volunteer-season-...
Community Day progress:
Miriam, Jake and I attended the Hazelwood Initiative member meeting on June 8 to present our project goals and ideas for the day to members of the community. We received a positive response and it helped to generate ideas for picking a date to host the event, as well as to hear what the community wanted to include in the day. Since then, we have worked on contacting groups in Hazelwood and honing in on what projects are feasible to complete for the day. We used the second half of our SCA meeting to visit Hazelwood and check out project locations and talk to some members of the community about the project. It looks like we are going to host it on Saturday, August 21. I am really excited about this. We will be working on contacting church and community groups this next month. I will be working to help out with outreach and recruiting volunteers for the day.
June: Miriam Parson
GREEN BUILDING ALLIANCE
CLIMATE FELLOW
In June 2010 my main priorities have been to coordinate Pittsburgh Climate Initiative (PCI) Partner task force meetings and plan a workshop for the Higher Education Climate Consortium (HECC). HECC’s July workshop will present two case studies of local campus emissions inventories and climate action plans, with discussion of how local campuses can benchmark progress among each other. I am continuing research for Pittsburgh’s second climate action plan, with each sector developing recommendations. Finally, I have helped with footwork and planning for our crew’s service project in Hazelwood.
June: Sarah Palmisano
THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH
Sustainable City Fellow
Sarah’s work as an SCA Sustainability Fellow in the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and Energy Efficiency generally falls into four categories: education and outreach, continuing personal education, internal work, and volunteering.
Education and outreach work includes things like hosting or tabling at appropriate events, symposiums, or conferences as a representative of the Mayor’s Office or the SCA. Education and outreach for June: completed and sent out the first e-mail update from the Office of Sustainability and Energy Efficiency to over 400 subscribers.
Continuing personal education includes attending various conferences, symposiums, workshops, or classes to increase awareness and understanding of a wide variety of sustainability and environmentally-related topics.
Personal education for June: wind investment conference; attended water matters conference to learn from leading innovators about new technologies and the importance of water; attended Liquid Knowledge – a discussion of the Water Matters conference hosted by the New Pittsburgh Collaborative; participated in the River Quest Environmental Boat Tour to learn about the history of Pittsburgh’s rivers, current initiatives to improve water quality, and environmental challenges area waterways face; attended the Green Innovators tour of the Connelly Center; attended a day-long grant writing class through the Carnegie Library.
Internal work describes work being done within the Mayor’s Office to incorporate sustainability into City operations and services.
Internal work for June: met with various Pittsburgh authorities to discuss including them in the second version of the Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan; attended Pittsburgh Climate Initiative meeting to discuss increasing city-county collaboration.
Volunteering is anything that she finds fun and worthwhile to help a good cause or a good friend after hours!
Volunteering for June: helped plant and weed sunflowers on 2 GTECH lots; helped construct a rain garden with East Liberty Development Inc.
June: Katrina Brink
PENN STATE EXTENSION, FOOD POLICY COUNCIL AND THE PITTSBURGH GARDEN EXPERIMENT
Sustainable Agriculture Fellow:
Penn State Cooperative Extension
• Attended tour of value added food businesses in Pittsburgh for planning of National Value Added Conference to be held in Pittsburgh in 2011.
• Attended final session of Exploring the Small Farm Dream
• Wrote first of weekly blog posts for yumpittsburgh entitled, This Week at the Farmers Market.
• Visited Farmers at Phipps and the East Liberty Farmers Market to meet with farmers and help promote their products through the yumpittsburgh blog
• Met with Reva Gorelick from Plant to Plate and was interviewed about school gardening initiatives and sustainable food systems work
• Met with Heather to discuss me co-teaching ESFD course in the fall
• Attended meeting with members of PSU, Grow Pittsburgh, Food Studies program at Chatham, Women’s Small Business Development Center and PASA to discuss Local Foods Showcase
Food Policy Council
• I took the minutes for the Food Policy Council meeting and sent them out to the attendees
• I conveyed messaged from Danae Clark, the current chair, to the group in her absence
• I met with Heather Mikulas to discuss the current transition time of the Food Policy Council
• June 9th participated in the set-up of screening of Food, Inc. at Homewood Public Library
• Final Planning meeting for Food, Inc. event
• I sent out an email to the new FPC mailing list created after the 5% day at the East End Food Co-op. I also invited people on the mailing list to join our Google group
• Filled out survey about next steps for the FPC
Pittsburgh Garden Experiment
• Discussed strategic plan with Jeff for next year
• Drafted grant proposal information for PGE
• Thursday, June 10th I attended the school festival for Colfax Elementary to promote PGE
• Brainstormed ideas for future events and ways to give help people feel more connected to PGE
Education:
• Water Matters Conference for UN World Environment Day– June 3rd – collected resources and learned about various water issues from organizations and booths. Heard speakers on topics related to water resource and energy issues.
• Visited Food Share in Toronto, Canada on the day of their Annual General Meeting. Helped volunteer in garden and learned about their programs through lunch and a tour of the facility
SCA Work:
• Met with Lori Gaido and my site supervisors to evaluate the progress of the fellowship
• Put together a powerpoint and a short oral presentation for the Americorps representative who visited the SCA office on June 23rd. I also participated in a short interview with the representative.
• I created a lesson about the food system for two groups of Heinz Youth in Philanthropy Interns. I met them at the Larimer Community garden, where they participated in weeding, seeding, transplanting and cutting herbs. We did an activity to learn about the global food distribution system that led into a discussion of a more regional and local food distribution model.
• Contacted members of Hazelwood Urban Gardens and the YMCA to discuss moving forward on the Community Service Day in Hazelwood.
June: Loralyn Fabian
EAST LIBERTY DEVELOPMENT, INC.
Sustainable Community Fellow
Loralyn's biggest projects this month:
ELDI: While continuing to work alongside many partners, she finished up her rain garden designs, the construction documents, ordered materials, budgeted, re-recruited many volunteers, planned the event day, and many other tasks that allowed the gardens to get into the ground on June 12th and 13th! A few extra steps are still needed to completely finish the gardens, and these will occur in July.
ELDI: Car Free Fridays are events to promote alternative modes of public transportation, and East Liberty’s event on June 18th had many partners on it. In June, Loralyn finished planning the CFF bike tour, walking tour, promoted CFF, and completed many other tasks in order to allow the event day to be successful and run smoothly. On June 18th, Loralyn tabled outside Whole Foods for the event, alongside the Port Authority, Trek Bikes, the City’s Bike and Pedestrian Coordinator, and Zip Car. The bike tour was held that evening.
SCA: Her main project through her SCA placement in June was planning the Green Cities Corps Pittsburgh Blues Festival event. In order to create a more sustainable Festival, and demonstrate the sustainable initiatives that are happening throughout the Pittsburgh region, Loralyn worked to help get organizations, agencies, and green businesses on board to table, developed a means to recruit volunteers, and generally kept her team on track with duties (among her other tasks for the project). The Festival will be occurring in July: 23rd, 24th, 25th.
June: Jake Baechle
SUSTAINABLE PITTSBURGH
Sustainable Business Fellow
During the first week in June Jake had the opportunity to attend many of the World Environment Day Events including the Water Matters Conference and the Paddle at the Point World Record setting. He was able to volunteer and participate in both of these events. He also attended the New Pittsburgh Collaborative water conference debrief and a Smart Transportation event.
Throughout June Jake has been focusing on two key projects: the Green Office Challenge and the Transportation Transformation. The Green Office Challenge will engage the region’s business community in a fair and friendly competition that promotes sustainable business practices. The competition will provide a guide of measurable actions for businesses and property owners to implement, and therefore result in measurable change.
The Transportation Transformation is based around an article in the National Geographic Magazine that looked at Pittsburgh’s commuting data and the massive impact small changes in our habits could make. This event will try to realize the goals set forth in the article and promote using alternative modes of transportation. Jake has worked to structure and present both of these projects on behalf of Sustainable Pittsburgh and the PCI. A key focus in July will be securing funding for these projects.
Outside of Sustainable Pittsburgh Jake has been working with the other Green Cities fellows to prepare for their Community Day in Hazelwood. He attended a Hazelwood Initiative meeting where he Miriam and Adam asked the community what they would like to see happen on the day of the event. He has also continued to spend time working with the Hazelwood Food Forest planting shrubs and pulling weeds. He will be spending time in July working with the Food Forest to plan for the Community Day happenings.
Raymon Whiteside
As a Pittsburgh native, Raymon Whiteside was accepted into the SCA's Green Job internship in September 2007, where he worked with both the Student Conservation Association and Construction Junction. It was through this placement that he became fully aware of the importance of climate change. Raymon believes that it was his SCA instructors’ in-depth class sessions on climate change, their beliefs on the environment, as well as their perspectives on the future of green jobs that really intrigued him. After witnessing the instructors’ dedication to save the environment first hand, Raymon began to think like an environmentalist himself. He not only became concerned about the state of today's environment, but he also wanted to raise the awareness needed to make an impact on our society, and ultimately move us towards a cleaner and more sustainable environment.
Raymon is placed with Action Housing working within their weatherization program as a part of the Energy Outreach Team. He will also be coordinating a special event for the SCA. This event will showcase what many organziations not only the SCA and the Green Cities Corps are doing to create a more sustainable Pittsburgh. Raymon will have multiple objectives within the remainder of his internship with Action Housing. Those objectives will be weatherization applicant follow-up, providng input as well as articles for the Action-Housing newsletter, creating and refining a Southwestern Regional Energy Efficiency Directory, maintaining community outreach sata spreadsheet, community presentations and education workshops, researching residential conservation, working with Action Housing's communty partner organizations, identify trainings of interest that will help improve his very own knowledge of weatherization and climate change solutions, and developing weatherization education modules.
Though Raymon has just joined the enviromental outreach movement he has been very active in the realms of outreach before his intership opportunity. Since October of 2008, he has been an elected official of the Pennsylvania State and Southwestern Regional Youth Advisory Board's Public Relations/Community Outreach. It is a volunteer program sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Child Welfare Program that reaches out to in and out of care foster youth. After his internship with the Student Conservation Assciation and Action Housing he plans to attend California University in California, Pa. There he will study environmental justice. Raymon vows to devote his life to his passion which is helping others. With the fusing of environmental and social injustice he will aspire to have a career in the field of environmental justice.
April: Claire Miziolek
GTECH STRATEGIES
Sustainable Community Fellow
Claire's April
VOLUNTEER DAYS:
• Grantmakers for Effective Organizations working in Larimer/E Liberty on 4/11--Awesome, got a lot done!
• Peabody students clean up lot behind Peabody school on 4/15--Got a lot Cleaned up!
• Bank of NY Mellon working in Uptown on 4/22--A lot of fun, bankers are competitive!
• PSVP Kids working in E. Liberty on 4/24--Fun, rainy, kids have a LOT of energy but love getting their hands dirty!
• Coro working in Wilkinsburg on 4/29--Fun, Coro people are a lot like us Green Cities people, competitive, too!
DEVELOPMENT/EDUCATION
• Took a Grant writing Class with the whole GTECH team at Robert Morris on 4/14
• Attending CityLive on Land, Air, and Water on 4/27
GREEN ECONOMY MEETINGS
• GJAB on 4/13
• Green Pathways to Prosperity Summit planning on 4/26 and ongoing--planning a Summit for 5/20 about getting the green economy message out to the community leaders of traditionally disadvantaged communities!
• Job Readiness Roundtable meeting on 4/28 which was awesome!
COMMUNITY MEETINGS:
• Larimer Green Team on 4/8
• Imani in the Hill on 4/15
• Shacona block group on 4/20
• Lawrenceville on 4/21
April: Jake Baechle
SUSTAINABLE PITTSBURGH
Sustainable Business Fellow
PORTFOLIO MANAGER TRAINING EVENT
o Communicated with EPA and Cadmus
o Met with Point Park University and scheduled room and lab use
o Wrote event description
Posted on Website
Emailed to BCC
3E Links Email
Press Release
• Wrote an article for TABLE Magazine titled “Water’s Role in
Sustainability.” It should appear in the summer issue.
• Scheduled subcommittee meetings for BCC
• Tabled for Great Outdoors week at FedEx Ground on Earth Day
• Researched Green Business Challenges in various cities
• Fielded calls, requests, and questions in Matt’s absence.
UPCOMING HAPPENINGS
• BCC Subcommittee Meetings, May 11th
• BCC Meeting, May 18th
• Portfolio Manager Training, May 20th
• BCC Webinar with East coast cities looking to model off of our
program, May 25th
• Working towards a Green Office/Green Business Challenge
• Beginning to contact Hazelwood Churches sometime next week to
discuss community day sevice project opportunities.
VOLUNTEERING
• Hazelwood Food Forest
o Workshop on April 17th
o 2 weekday work days
• Panther Hallow Extravaganza
o Crew leader with Josh from the SCA, collected 49 bags of
invasive garlic mustard
April: Katrina Brink
PENN STATE EXTENSION, FOOD POLICY COUNCIL AND THE PITTSBURGH GARDEN EXPERIMENT
Sustainable Agriculture Fellow:
PENN STATE EXTENSION
- Posted festivals, PGH restaurants that source local ingredients, and articles to Yumpittsburgh.com
- Facilitating registration process for course to start in May: Exploring the Small Farm Dream
- Ordered books for the above course
- Wrote letter inviting producers to take part in Farm Profiles to be used by Penn State and East End Food Co-op
- Made online surveys and sent them out to buyers and producers who attended the Local Food Showcase in March
- Summarized results of online surveys
- Met with Rob Baran of the co-op to discuss Farm Profiles
FOOD POLICY COUNCIL
- Did research on other cities' urban ag zoning codes (keeping chickens, livestock and bees in the city and the specific requirements to do so)
- Attended 2 FPC meetings and took notes and posted them to Google group
- Helped with beginning stages of event to be held in Homewood to show the film, Food Inc.
- Presented a small amount of research at one of the FPC meetings, then posted document to google group
PITTSBURGH GARDEN EXPERIMENT
- Organized multiple events and if completed posted them to PGE website, google calendar and/or MeetUp group (Vacant Lot Remediation/Beautification Panel Discussion; Compost Happens;Large Scale Veggie Gardening Workshop; Wild Edibles Walk; Natural Vision Enhancement Walk - still in progress; Sweet Potato Harvest Party)
- Folded catalogs and distributed them to libraries/stores/cafes/coffee shops throughout ShadySide, Lawrenceville, Bloomfield and Squirrel Hill
- Picked up sawdust from Urban Tree Forge to be taken to Blackberry Meadows Farm and used for mushroom cave
- Picked up food waste from Quiet Storm to be used in industrial worm composter eventually - but dumped at Blackberry Meadows Farm for now
- Planted garlic in field and seeded flats in the greenhouse at BBMF
- Assisted Jeff in picking up seeds to fill catalog orders and fruit trees
VOLUNTEER DAYS
- Panther Hollow Extravaganza - led crew picking up trash - awesome day
- Grant Makers for Effective Organizations - led a small group mulching, weeding and laying bricks for a path at community garden in Larimer - Way Fun!
DEVELOPMENT/EDUCATION
- Pittsburgh Food Forest Workshop on April 17
-Attended CityLive with Claire on Land, Air, and Water on April 27
April: Evan Endres
PENNFUTURE AND CONSERVATION CONSULTANTS, INC.
Sustainable Community Fellow:
PennFuture: BLACK AND GOLD CITY GOES GREEN campaign
-Developed outreach materials and informational materials for the campaign
-Reached out to, and registered 6 new Community Partners for the campaign
-Outreach and some cross promotion with the City's Tree Giveaway
-Earth Day tabling at the county
-Earth Night tabling with the Environmental Chanter School
-Tabling at CMU's Faces of Globalization
-Attended a Regional Visioning Meeting
-Continue to work on issues related to the Water Savers Competition (Prizes, Participation, Etc.)
CONSURVATION CONSULTANTS, INC.
-Conducted a presentation on home efficiency and energy audits at the Mt. Lebanon Library
-Gave several tours of the CCI Center (certified LEED building) to High School Students
-Answered customer inquiries about home energy audits
-Completed several spring maintenance projects -Earth day Saturday with CCI in Mt. Lebanon
-Just completed an Arbor Day celebration at Concord Elementary, planted trees, presented tree education.
-Preparing for the Global Warming conference Sunday May 2, 2010.
VOLUNTEER WORK
-Worked to help organize a "Save our Forrest" Rally at the Governors office (Dressed in a green bunny puppet... Non SCA)
April: Loralyn Fabian
EAST LIBERTY DEVELOPMENT, INC.
Sustainable Community Fellow
NEGLEY RUN BLVD.
Event: Saturday, March 27th, 2010
Conducted Negley Run Blvd. site assessment on March 8th, 2010, with Erin Copeland (PPC) and Myrna Newman (Allgheny Cleanways)
We were already receiving a great amount of CMU students to volunteer for the day to clean-up the site
Outreach conducted to the bordering neighborhoods to recruit community volunteers
Goal was to create an event to foster green networking and education between neighborhoods and the students
Created flyer / map to promote event, but mainly to explain event through face to face interactions at meetings
Outreach conducted through attending community meetings and sending announcements over community group email servers
Recruited remaining crew leaders through a SCA staff member, PPC staff member, my co-workers, etc.
Along with recruiting volunteers and crew leaders, I had to plan and organize everything that goes into an event
Contacted DPW for dumpsters, traffic division, scrap metal removal contact, arranged all materials needed (a lot through AC), bathrooms, food (and $ for food), etc.
Wrote up work plan, wrote up crew leader outlines for day-of speeches, planned actual process of how sites were to be cleaned / how many people needed / etc., etc.
Conducted crew leader training meeting, along with several other meetings with individual leaders that could not make original meeting
Pick-up along Negley Run Blvd. between Collins Ave. and Washington Blvd.
95 CMU students came out that day to clean-up, as well as 18 community members, 12 additional volunteers, and 16 PSU students
12 Crew leaders (counting Josie/Scott as one)
5 "supervisors", including myself
157 VOLUNTEERS TOTAL!
Significant amount of trash / litter picked-up
Each crew had a reflection period at the end to harness community member and student green discussion/education
Prep for the event, and clean-up after the event conducted by supervisors
Thank you letters, typed and hand written, sent to partners and volunteers
Student volunteers benefitted through:
Spending time outdoors/connecting with nature, working as a team, sense of accomplishment, exercise, pollution education / awareness to not litter, interacting with their local community
Community member volunteers beneffited through:
Spending time outdoors/connecting with nature, working as a team, enhancing their community, sense of accomplishment, sense of pride and ownership over one's neighborhood green asset, making connections with their neighbors, exercise, pollution education / awareness to not litter, interacting with local college studets
Crew leaders benefitted through:
Spending time outdoors/connecting with nature, crew leader training, leadership skills, team player skills, sense of accomplishment, exercise, pollution education
TREEVITALIZE
TreeVitalize is a program managed through Western PA Conservancy, WPC, but community members and CDCs make the projects happen
Three separate potential sites for tree plantings
Black St. - East Liberty and Garfield borders
Sheridan Ave. - East Liberty
Stanton Ave. - East Liberty and Highland Park borders
Had meetings with partners from each site to discuss project, get them on board, and begin strategizing outreach to residents
In order for a tree to be planted, the resident who's house it would be in front of must comply and sign a request form so created flyers with image montages for each site / focus: conserving money
Outreach door to door on many dates at each site with partners / flyers distributed / request forms signed by each interested resident
Wrote the TreeVitalize applications / attached request forms
RAIN GARDENS
Funding to implement 5 residential, urban rain gardens in NegleyPlace neighborhood (Garfield, East Liberty, Highland Park)
6 potential sites located by our partner Gary Cirrincione - where the residents would like a rain garden and have a green thumb
6 sites scientifically assessed to determine which 5 are best suited for gardens
• Water infiltration test, soil tests, calculating area of roof runoff, drainage area, etc.
• Assessment report developed by our partner, Barton Kirk
Volunteer recruitment from the residents family, friends, and neighbors
Recruitment of crew leaders (rain garden experts)
Draft up the designs in AutoCAD on the computer
Order plants from RGA
CAR FREE FRIDAYS
Meeting with Lou and Karen to discuss Car Free Fridays
Event in East Liberty in June to promote alternative and green transportation methods
Will have tent at Whole Foods to promote with breakfast
Developing neighborhood bike tour and designing map for tour
Developing separate East Liberty walking tour route for different date in June
Promotion will start soon: Posters, Eblasts, articles in the community papers and blogs
Event: June 18th and 26th
ELM ST DISTRICT
Also in the midst of locating great places for additional tree planting in our Elm Street District
Meeting with Matt Erb from Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest
Budgetting
Finalized by June 1st
STORYTELLING DEVICE
Read through ELDI's annual reports and community plan
Will now consult with Nate to develop ideas for the ultimate storytelling graphic device to get ELDI's story across to others
STUDENT CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION
SCA: GREEN CITIES BLUES FESTIVAL
Event decided: Tag on an existing event, make it sustainable and promote green initiaves/Green Cities too
Developed list of potential partners for event and their contacts
And list of supplies / SWAG must get
And what green initiatives can actually be embedded into Festival
Created deadlines
Created Facebook page and photo to begin early promotion
Divided partners three ways along with Ray and Lori
Begin contacting potential partners
Event: July 23, 24, 25
SCA: COMMUNITY DAY
Managing communication amongst Fellows through emails
Researched and developed list of potential community contacts for Fellows
Developing GIS analysis maps
Keeping in contact with primary contact Jim Ritcher, ED of Hazelwood Initiative, Inc.
Developed Google Doc to keep Fellow's contacts organized
Developed deadlines / possible community meeting day
SCA: Website
Will develop in the next week
April: Miriam Parson
GREEN BUILDING ALLIANCE
CLIMATE FELLOW
GOAL 1: Publish the 2008 Pittsburgh Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Report
- All data is collected, the last piece being electricity data from Duquesne Light Co.
- The final draft of the inventory report is being circulated for internal review, and then there are key players (PCI Partners, CMU’s graduate class that has worked on inventories) who will assist as third party reviewers.
- Our graphic artist and her intern are working on the layout so that it looks like a physically published document, but it will only be published online and distributed electronically.
- Planning is underway for the report’s release, in conjunction with the County’s baseline inventory.
GOAL 2: Draft the Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan, Version 2.0 (PCAP v2)
- I have met with the leaders of each sector to plan how their committee will develop recommendations.
-- Each sector will approach their chapter of the climate action plan differently, based on the messaging needs and structure of their target audience.
-- We’re working to develop better strategies for the County’s inclusion.
-- We’re working to develop better strategies for the Authorities’ inclusion.
-- Overall, there is a step by step approach for each sector, and then continuing conversation.
- I am continuing to build lists of recommendations from other cities’ climate action plans.
- I have met with three former members of the GGTF, the only three who responded to my ask. We discussed their insight into PCI’s progress and areas for improvement, and plans for involvement in future recommendation development.
- Attended a Rain Garden Alliance meeting for potential inclusion in 2.0
- Recruited TerraShift into the BCC after conversations about their work for 2.0 inclusion.
GOAL 3: Support events and meetings for the Higher Education Climate Consortium
- I organized goals and discussion for HECC’s April meeting.
- Registered a table for the Water Matters! conference to represent HECC and PCI.
- Re-initiated conversation with 3 schools who still have yet to give me information for their web pages.
GOAL 4: Support meetings and management of the PCI Partners.
- I have been researching 2011 funding opportunities for the PCI through our local Foundation Center and through information on how other cities’ climate initiatives are funded.
- We’ve been continuing the group feedback and discussion process around a new vision, mission, values statements, organizational partnerships, and management commitment for the PCI.
GOAL 5: Participate in Community Service Opportunities in Pittsburgh.
- Volunteered with a Highland Park tree planting.
- Led a crew for the PPC’s Panther Hallow Earth Day Extravaganza
- Volunteered with a Tree Care Workshop on Polish Hill to prune street trees.
Claire Miziolek
Claire Miziolek comes to the Green Cities program from Baltimore, Maryland where she was born and raised. Growing up in Baltimore City, Claire witnessed many serious issues such as poverty, violence, and addiction. This fueled her passion for social justice from a young age. In Baltimore, she volunteered with the Center for Poverty Solutions and the local food bank. In high school, she became more aware of the state of the environment and her passion expanded to include bringing an end to global warming. These passions continued when Claire attended Cornell University, as she took many environmental courses and became a Master Composter. Through college, she had several internships including teaching 3rd graders at a Baltimore City public school, compiling data at the Social Security Administration, and researching at an environmental consulting non-profit. Since age 14, whenever she's home in Baltimore, Claire works at Greg's Bagels, a fantastic bagel shop. After graduating from Cornell with a double major in Economics and Psychology, she moved to Pittsburgh to pursue a career in environmental sustainability and now loves her work through the SCA at GTECH Strategies where she is able to help solve problems of both environmental sustainability and social justice. She has been very fortunate to be able to travel to such locations as the Galapagos Islands, Bangladesh, and Australia. She is a long-time vegetarian and enjoys music, nature, and coffee.
Miriam Parson
Miriam is a recent graduate of Gettysburg College with degrees in Environmental Studies and Political Science. She has experience in organizing, sustainability programming, service-learning, food security, environmental policy, environmental behavior research, and sustainable development in Central America. Miriam is passionate about gardening and sustainable food systems, global economics, speaking Spanish, large group meals, and thrift store finds. She joined the Green Cities Corps to dive into the center of Pittsburgh’s sustainability movement and learn how she can be useful in our transition to a low-energy, localized, exciting future. She hopes to permanently live in Pittsburgh working closely on sustainability projects.
April: Adam Fedyski
PITTSBURGH PARKS CONSERVANCY
SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY FELLOW
Other than preparing and coordinating volunteers for the Panther Hollow Extravaganza, I partook in four tabling events, three other volunteer days (one with the Westinghouse corporation, another with 7th graders from Propel Schools near the Waterfront), and I assisted the folks at the Frick Environmental Center with their first grade Habitat Explorers program yesterday. April has been intense! (but enjoyable).
The Parks Conservancy prepared a blog about the Panther Hollow Extravaganza, which includes a blurb from yours truly, as well as a picture slideshow including Katrina, Miriam, Jake, and many others of the nearly 200 people we had out in Schenley Park on a rainy Saturday morning!
Check it out: http://pittsburghparks.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/a-banner-day-for-panther....
Here are some good statistics for the Panther Hollow Extravaganza:
192 volunteers (despite the cool rainy weather)
19 trees planted
120 shrubs planted
5 rain barrels installed
1 rain garden planted
44 bags of trash removed—plus 1 metal barrel and 3 parking meters
10 bags of recyclables collected
2 buckets of glass shards collected
200 bags of garlic mustard removed
Photo by John Altdorfer
Jake Baechle
Jake Baechle graduated from the University of Redlands in December of 2009 with a B.S. in Business Administration. Understanding the condition of the planet he felt called to focus his efforts on protecting it and promoting sustainable practices. After working with Automation Plastics in Ohio to establish a recycling program, he found his way to Pittsburgh to join the SCA Green Cities Corps. Through this program he works with Sustainable Pittsburgh. Here he engages the business community in a process of measuring their energy usage and carbon emissions in an effort to inform and help them reduce their climate impact.
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| Loralyn Fabian |
| Raymon Whiteside |
| Claire Miziolek |
| Miriam Parson |
| Jake Baechle |
| Katrina Brink |
| Evan Endres |
| Adam Fedyski |
| Sarah Palmisano |
| Jamie Eberl |
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