Franco Harris Pittsburgh Center Blog

The Penn State Center presented the “Be Green, Make Green” summer school program at four Pittsburgh public school locations. Summer Dreamers targeted middle-school students’ summer slump by immersing them in a highly engaging learning environment and exploring sustainability in science and technology. The students had a wide variety of experiences. They started their own urban…

“The technical resources being provided by Penn State to our community are invaluable to our efforts. We are a small community with limited resources and limited staff. These resources are helping us move forward in our planning process for green infrastructure. As a flood-prone community, we believe green infrastructure will help us help ourselves.”  —…

Six municipalities and communities along the Allegheny and Ohio rivers — Natrona, Springdale, Sharpsburg, Etna, Carnegie, and Coraopolis — are working with The Penn State Center to take a greener and more collaborative approach to addressing common infrastructure problems. “We’re giving them training and tools to take a more environmentally and economically sustainable approach,” explained…

In many low-income urban neighborhoods, residents do not have access to fresh produce or other healthy food. Students in a food products marketing course participated in a project to develop a food retailing plan for eight marginalized communities in the Pittsburgh area. To kick off the project, Deno De Ciantis, director of the Penn State…

Nine utility companies in Washington, D.C., Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are engaged in U.S. Department of Energy Smart Grid Investment projects. These multi-state projects will improve grid efficiency and operations, reduce peak load demand, and enhance grid reliability by installing more than 12 million smart meters. Penn State was recently awarded $5 million…

Penn State was recently awarded $2 million for the creation of a regional Mid-Atlantic Solar Resource and Training Center serving New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Delaware. Solar train-the-trainer facilities will be located at the Pittsburgh Green Innovators building and at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. The solar train-the-trainer initiative will provide online, classroom, and hands-on…

A project to install a green roof on the county office building has developed into a partnership among Allegheny County, Highmark, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, and The Penn State Center to promote the advantages of green roofs in the city of Pittsburgh. In April, installation of a green roof on the county office building began…

In our previous newsletter, we reported on a Green Space market study. That project has evolved into a student research experience led by associate professor of rural sociology Clare Hinrichs. Students in her Community, Environment, and Development (CED) capstone course have been studying the social impact of greening efforts in Larimer, one of Pittsburgh’s marginalized…

The Pittsburgh Green Innovators envision a fully sustainable campus system that supports a superlative quality of life and serves as this city’s emerald jewel. It engages multidisciplinary teams from business, labor, government, nonprofits, and universities, as well as experts from around the world who employ the science of sustainability to meet modern global challenges and…