The first Sustainability Weekend at Carnegie Mellon University brought architects, environmental educators, public officials and artists together in a student-driven weekend of events, including a tour of the Frick Environmental Center in Frick Park.
The $18.4 million restoration and reconstruction of the center is expected to be completed this summer. Its designers strive to meet the Living Building Challenge, a rigorous standard that requires the site to create all the energy it uses, to use no combustible fuels, to capture and reuse or infiltrate all precipitation, to treat its own sewage and to source local, non-toxic materials.
Among several panels that convened Saturday at CMU’s University Center, one reported out some results of the Pittsburgh 2030 commitment, as directed by the Green Building Alliance.
The 2030 Districts so far are Downtown and Oakland, where the owners of 935 and 435 buildings, respectively, have committed to reducing their energy consumption by 50 percent by 2030.
Aurora Sharrard, the alliance’s executive director, said energy consumption by the participating buildings is down 6.3 percent and water consumption by 10 percent.
The City-County Building, Downtown, is one success story, having almost reached its goal already, with 47 percent reduction, said Aftyn Giles, the city’s sustainability coordinator.
Some equipment has been fitted with sensors so employees can see how much energy they are using, and manual processes have been automated so staff members can reduce their use of paper and residents can do a lot of things online that they used to have to go Downtown to do, such as rent a park shelter.
The city’s bad news is the Municipal Courts building on First Avenue. Built in 1995, it has proved to be an energy hog. Rather than reduce since 2014, it has used 29 percent more energy. Ms. Giles said it was not designed to be energy efficient and cannot be naturally ventilated.
CMU is participating in the 2030 campaign with stepped-up efforts to manage stormwater. The campus has stormwater retention systems at six buildings and has added green roofs to all newer buildings and some older ones, said Martin Altschul, an engineer with CMU’s facilities management services.
The university’s checklist includes reuse of copy paper, paper-free meetings, purchasing in bulk, composting food, carpooling and telecommuting.
On the idea of Rachel Wong, a member of the student group Sustainable Earth, a planning committee wrestled the weekend events into being.
“This happened because we are passionate about sustainability and want to open the conversation beyond the campus,” said Courtney Thier, a graduate student in civil and environmental engineering and one of the organizers. “There are no grades, no credits, just something that motivates us.”
Diana Nelson Jones: djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626.
First Published: April 3, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
