City to showcase climate action plan
Sep 4 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Diana Nelson Jones
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Some people still deny climate change because there are
always people who deny the tough stuff of science. Others don't
deny it but think people don't cause it. The good news is that
more people are deciding that, regardless, we can and should
live smarter on the Earth. As of next spring, the city will
showcase the climate action plan it initiated in 2006 with the
Green Building Alliance to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20
percent by 2023 -- the sixth floor of the City-County Building.
Two teams of five interior architecture students at Chatham
University tied in winning a competition to turn the sixth-floor
lobby into Green Central, a hub of information about the city's
action-plan projects and resources to help residents develop
their own.
Green Central will provide pamphlets, posters, resource
guides, educational information, photos, program applications
and an interactive display. Visitors will be able to use a
computer to find details about the city's sustainability
programs and how households and businesses can use them as
models. The city's climate action plan offers guidelines to
government, business, institutions and residents on how to make
changes in their buildings and lifestyles to use less energy.
"Green Central is a great opportunity to share all the ways
our city works to be one of the cleanest and greenest in the
country," Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said.
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This will be the city government's first such resource center
to promote choices that are sustainable for future life. Saving
energy is at the root of the green movement and at the heart of
the solution to climate change. It has been gratifying to see
this movement spread across all sectors in the past decade or so
and more people understanding the importance of taking action to
reverse climate change.
The people who have always gotten it are educated, and
institutions of higher learning are increasingly preparing
students to consider sustainable solutions across disciplines.
Of the five Chatham students, Melissa Estrada's entry was a
mural to cover a 100-foot-long corridor. The mural will
illustrate Pittsburgh's transformation on a timeline from the
turn of the 20th century to today. She said she has developed a
love for sustainable design and an interest in facilities
management while a student at Chatham. She designed her mural
based on research into the history of the city and the
City-County Building.
The other team -- Eva Mueller, Pia Naiditch, Laura Ralich and
Ella Thompson -- designed custom-made recycling bins that evoke
the roots of a tree and will have transparent sides to show
recycled items. Collecting waste in the city's single-stream
collection, the bins will also be for hard-to-recycle items such
as batteries and cell phones.
Kathy Hrabovsky, an instructor in the interior architecture
program at Chatham, said the students' work was done on their
own time. "I coached them through the process," she said. "It's
wonderful that the city partners with local universities to give
students this kind of opportunity to apply what we teach in the
classroom and studio -- artful design, technical skills,
community collaboration, and an understanding of project
budgeting and coordination -- in a real-world situation."
Aftyn Giles, the city's sustainability coordinator, worked
with the teams and has invited the students to be part of the
installation process, Ms. Hrabovsky said.
Two teams from the University of Pittsburgh also competed.
Scoring was based on whether the materials and installation
would come in under a $25,000 budget. Sustainable materials,
recycling elements, interactive elements and appearance also
were factors in the scoring.
The project will be paid for by the mayor's Green Trust Fund.
Diana Nelson Jones: djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626.
Read her blog City Walkabout at www.post-gazette.com/citywalk.