July: Evan Endres

PENNFUTURE AND CONSERVATION CONSULTANTS, INC.
Sustainable Community Fellow:

July was a pretty busy month for the Black and Gold City Goes Green campaign. Early July also represented my last days at CCI and a switch to a full time post at PennFuture.

One in a Million Event and Partnership with Pittsburgh Parks:

The Black and Gold City started July by partnering with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy‘s One in a Million, Schenley Park Celebration. B&GCGG agreed to host a pledge page so PPC members could take a pledge to help save one million gallons of water through various home conservation measures. B&GCGG did a carbon calculation based on the potential water saved and will factor this into the overall carbon savings for the community portion of the Pittsburgh Climate Initiative.

Doing this required meetings and coordination with our web development contractor to arrive at an acceptable product.

This partnership culminated in the One in Million Shenley parkcelebrations. This was a great recruitment and outreach event for our campaign. We also received limited media coverage. See media coverage here below:

http://www.postgazette.com/multimedia/?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=defa...

We will have the impact results from this event in September.

PCI EPA Grant:

The Black and Gold City Goes Green also contributed to the construction and conceptualization of an Environmental Protection Agency Grant Proposal through the PCI. As the B&GCGG representative if fell on me to work out detailed calculations connecting water conservation with carbon footprint. I also contributed to a substantial report on B&GCGG capacity to facilitate measures outlined in the grant.

Hard to Recycle Event:

July’s focus was on recycling. In observance of this I partnered with the Pennsylvania Resources Council (PRC) to encourage B&GCGG partners and participants to bring items to hard to a hard to recycle event at the Pittsburgh Mills mall. We also recruited volunteers and were at the event giving CFL bulbs to B&GCGG members who attended and doing general campaign outreach.

We also attempted to offer our community partners recycling micro-grants in an attempt to offset some of the fees involved with recycling hard to recycle items. This was met with limited response. We will attempt this offer again later in the year.

Heinz, Youth in Sustainability Grant:

Another grant funding opportunity came across our table in July. The Youth in Sustainability Grant provides financial support for youth programs that engaged high school aged youth in sustainability. This was a perfect opportunity for B&GCGG as we have been looking for ways to engage youth in our campaign. I conceptualized and authored a grant for a program that establishes “youth community partner groups” in schools, churches and other organizations with youth components. We are awaiting word on the award.

Pittsburgh Blues Festival:

Tabling at this event resulted in 120 new B&GCGG participants and at least 6new community partners. For our campaign it was an opportunity to engage new demographics. The SCA provided the incentive of free reusable tote bags to all those who registered; this was a great help.
I coordinated our participation for this event .

CCI:

I completed my last responsibility for CCI. I had agreed to assist on a comprehensive BPI home energy audit. I was able to learn a lot and contribute to the success of this audit.

Misc.
• Produced a number of documents and research for our upcoming monthly actions
• Attended a number of meetings with community partners to nurture extension of these
partnerships and create opportunities that mutually benefit organizations.
• Continue to develop new strategies and troubleshoot campaign weakness
• Registered nearly 200 new participants and 8 new Community Partners.