October: Sarah Palmisano

SUSTAINABLE CITY FELLOW
The City of Pittsburgh

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 October: Sent out an e-mail update from the Office of Sustainability and Energy Efficiency to 416 subscribers on a recent ICLEI milestone award, Duquesne Light’s Watt Choices rebate program, and an Alcosan community meeting to learn about the Wet Weather Control Plan.

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 October: Attended the 2010 Smart Growth Conference to learn about sustainable growth and investing in sustainable communities.

Internal work describes work being done within the Mayor’s Office to incorporate sustainability into City operations and services.
Internal work for October: Continued interviews for a best practices manual and met with collaborating partners to discuss how the manual will be used; attended a Shade Tree Commission funding presentation for Mayor Ravenstahl and took minutes; attended Pittsburgh Climate Initiative meeting.

Volunteering is anything that she finds fun and worthwhile to help a good cause or a good friend after hours!
Volunteering for October: Participated in the Black and Gold City Goes Green’s “Bloomfield Blitz” to hand out kits to Bloomfield neighbors helping them save electricity and informing them about green initiatives; traveled to the Allegheny National Forest to do 2 days of trail work with another SCA crew; helped GTECH prepare a vacant lot for a future sunflower planting by spreading compost.