October: Jake Baechle

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS FELLOW
Sustainable Pittsburgh

On the first of October Jake attended a PCI meeting to discuss the new PCI logo and tagline, as well as discuss funding for the group. The next morning Jake volunteered at the Bloomfield Blitz which was hosted by the Black & Gold City Goes Green campaign and Bloomfield Community Development. Here Jake and other volunteers went door to door handing out CFL light bulbs, recycling bags, and information on how to cancel junk mail.

During the first full week in October Jake hosted the BCC Goals meeting, visited a landfill, and spent two days doing trail work in Allegheny National Forest with SCA crews. The BCC Goals meeting discussed potential goals and established a format for the new edition of the Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan Business section. At the Imperial Landfill Jake had the opportunity to see the day to day operations including off gas capturing and burning. The trail work with SCA was a great opportunity to do some hands on work and network with SCA crew members in various fields of work.

The following week Jake hosted the BCC Events subcommittee meeting and helped Sustainable Pittsburgh complete final preparation for the Smart Growth Conference. The events subcommittee discussed grants to potentially fund the Green Office Challenge. The Smart Growth Conference was an overall success with over 400 people in attendance and great presentations from key figures on sustainable development.

Throughout the end of October Jake worked to prepare for upcoming programs. The final BCC meeting of the year will take place on November 2nd. Matt and Jake are also preparing one last major BCC event that they anticipate will take place on December 7th and will focus on organizations creating their own greenhouse gas inventories.