Wednesday, June 02, 2010

By Joe Smydo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh City Councilman Bill Peduto and representatives of the business and nonprofit communities this morning announced the creation of a kind of chamber of commerce for green organizations.

Called Greener Pittsburgh, the initiative will bring organizations and businesses together to buy green products and services from one another. It also will develop a rating system to let residents and businesses know how sustainable a company or organization is.

The initiative is being developed by a Lawrenceville company, Greener Expressions, with support from Christine Mondor of Evolve, a Friendship architectural firm.

Mr. Peduto said he believes the initiative, still in the planning stages, will become a model for other cities.

Joe Smydo: jsmydo@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1548.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10153/1062514-100.stm

Joseph is experienced with integrated design and is a skilled project facilitator. He encourages active dialogue among project team members to clarify client values, identify sustainability goals, recognize project opportunities and evaluate design options. His creative approach to optimizing sustainability within a projects design, budget and schedule goals enables project teams to effectively make sustainable decisions throughout the project lifecycle. His projects have been recognized nationally and locally for sustainable design innovation and design excellence. He received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Carnegie Mellon University, is a registered architect and a LEED accredited Professional. joseph@evolveEA.com

Selected Project Experience :: Architecture

Davis Student Center, University of Vermont First LEED NC Gold certified student center +

School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Penn State University With Overland Architects, LEED NC Gold certified +

Student Housing, Indiana University of PA With Allen O’Hara Developer 7224 beds, LEED NC Silver certified +

Student Housing, SUNY School Environmental Science and Forestry With Allen & O’Hara Developer, LEED NC Silver pending +

Mollohan Student Community Center, Glenville State College, WV Designed to achieve LEED NC Silver certification +

Convent and High School Renovation and Additions, Felician sisters, Coraopolis, PA LEED NC Gold certified ++

RAND Corporation, Pittsburgh Regional Office Interior design and office planning for collaborative research +

Science and Technology Center, Penn State University, New Kensington, PA Classroom laboratory building +

Nittany Lion Inn Addition and Renovation, Penn State University Historic hotel renovation

Penns Grant Senior Housing, Bucks County, PA Independent living facility ++

Baptist Homes Master Plan, Mt. Lebanon, PA Senior continuum of care with nursing, assisted and independent living ++

Bayer Corporation, Pittsburgh Campus Executive offices, laboratory buildings and guest house renovation +

Jefferson Regional Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA Ambulatory Surgery Center renovation and Parking Garage +

Selected Project Experience :: Sustainability Consulting

RiverParc, Pittsburgh, PA, International design competition winner with Behenisch Architecten, proposed LEED ND +

Reed Smith Law Offices, Pittsburgh, PA With Gensler Architects, LEED NC Silver certification pending +

Student Housing, Indiana University of PA With Allen O’Hara Developer 7224 beds, LEED NC Silver certified +

Student Housing, Slippery Rock University of PA With Allen O’Hara Developer 750 beds, LEED NC Silver certified +

Student Activities Center, University of Miami With Arquitectonica, LEED NC Silver certification pending +

Sustainable Branch Bank Prototype, Dollar Bank, Pittsburgh, PA Competitor benchmarking and prototype evaluation +

Weston Convention Center Hotel, Pittsburgh, PA LEED EB feasibility study +

Selected Project Experience :: Education

Sustainable Projects: Purpose and Process Customized presentation for UVM NACAS Greening Your Campus Conference

+ Indicates projects with WTW Architects

++ Indicates projects with Perkins Eastman Architects

Fast forward to the year 2020…Friendship and Garfield have been named Pittsburgh’s most progressive climate friendly neighborhoods. Penn Avenue is the new “Green Seam” where businesses are flocking to be part of the community.  What would be in the now vacant storefronts?  EvolveEA will propose businesses that provoke us to think about our neighborhoods’ future. Join us to discuss these ideas.

Climate Migration Services

Body Power

Urban Agrifitters

LEARN MORE

Fuel costs and food sources are intricately linked. Our food travels longer distances, with the average American family dinner including ingredients from five different countries (Pirog). Using the concept of “food miles”, researchers have found that the typical mouthful of food in industrialized countries travels over 1,200 miles (Rees). This dependency on transportation makes our food supply especially vulnerable to instability in the fossil fuel markets. Even absent a major catastrophic event like a war in an oil producing region, the US Energy Information Administration has projected continuous increases in the cost of gasoline that outpace inflation, which will affect the cost of transportation, as well as the cost of petroleum based fertilizers that are commonly used. These costs are likely to be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices for food.

Extended or distended ecological loops represent lost opportunities to recapture local resource wealth. In current practice, mineral resources are imported to a region as fertilizer, exported as food and run off, and later flushed or thrown away, with little chance to close the nutrient loop in an ecologically integrated production system. As we enter an economy with carbon accountability, local based food production systems will move from being a moral imperative to economically viable means that also benefits the regional ecology.

Perhaps the biggest change is in the shift from a large scale industrialized through-put system to a distributed network of small producers who require knowledge and support as well as materials and outlets for distribution. New network nodes such as supply outlets, markets and distribution centers, farmer-consumer cooperatives, and the farms themselves will create employment opportunities (Rees). With less than two percent of Americans operating a farm, there will be a need for knowledge and creativity that will come through community based centers. It will become an opportunity to weave the agricultural activities back into the urban fabric and reconnect people to the land that supports them.

http://www.cityfarmer.org/rees.html

http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/staff/files/food_travel072103.pdf

http://www.eia.doe.gov/steo