Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 49.76
Liaison Aurora Sharrard
Submission Date Feb. 28, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Pittsburgh
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Erika Ninos
Sustainability Program Coordinator
PittServes
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability :
Higher Education Climate Consortium

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? :
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe?:
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus?:
The partnership supports at least one, but not all three, dimensions of sustainability

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (Yes, No, or Not Sure):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above:

Pittsburgh’s colleges and universities play a vital role in the city’s success, from developing the next generation of leaders to generating breakthrough discoveries. Similarly, Pittsburgh’s institutions of higher education have accepted responsibility for leading the way in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and banded together to form The Higher Education Climate Consortium (HECC) to cooperatively implement recommendations. HECC meets quarterly in an effort to address the short-term (within 2 years), medium-term (within 5 years) and long-term (beyond 5 years) recommendations on how colleges, universities and their students can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.


Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (2nd partnership):
Pittsburgh 2030 District

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (2nd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (2nd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (2nd partnership):
The partnership simultaneously supports social equity and wellbeing, economic prosperity, and ecological health

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (2nd partnership) (Yes, No, or Not Sure):
No

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above (2nd partnership):

Collectively, buildings in Downtown Pittsburgh and Oakland in this Green Building Alliance initiative are actively working to achieve 50% reductions in energy use, water use, and transportation emissions by the year 2030. The University was a founding member in 2014 of the Oakland District and has twice hosted the monthly 2030 District Partner meeting.

These dramatic reductions are being accomplished in conjunction with improved indoor air quality, increased returns on investment, and related growing regional successes.

The University of Pittsburgh's Dr. Melissa Bilec, Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Deputy Director, Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation, has been working with the Pittsburgh 2030 District to conduct an IAQ pilot to establish an IAQ baseline for individual buildings, the impacts of energy reductions on IAQ, and efforts to develop a scalable IAQ protocol.

https://www.go-gba.org/initiatives/pittsburgh-2030-district/


Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (3rd partnership):
Food Recovery Partnership: Pitt Pantry and 412 Food Rescue

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (3rd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (3rd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (3rd partnership):
The partnership simultaneously supports social equity and wellbeing, economic prosperity, and ecological health

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (3rd partnership) (Yes, No, or Unknown):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above (3rd partnership):

The mission of 412 Food Rescue is, “to prevent perfectly good food from entering the waste stream,” which they accomplish by recovering produce and prepared foods from local businesses and redistributing it through local food assistance programs. Their activities support all three dimensions of sustainability by:

1. Preventing food from entering landfill, reducing the amount of greenhouse gases produced
2. Addressing food insecurity by redirecting healthy foods to those that need it most, as well as providing no-cost cooking and nutrition classes to community members
3. Boosting the local economy by working with small business to create innovative products from surplus food.

More information on 412 Food Rescue can be found here: https://412foodrescue.org/

The Pitt Pantry is in its third year of partnership with 412 Food Rescue, and has supplied volunteers to assist with food recoveries and leading cooking and nutrition classes. Additionally, the Pitt Pantry and 412 Food Rescue have worked together to raise awareness of food insecurity and food waste through events such as the University of Pittsburgh Collegiate Basic Needs Dialogue (October 2017) and the Pitt Pantry Annual Hunger Banquet (March 2016 and 2017, and to be held April 2018).
http://www.studentaffairs.pitt.edu/pittserves/sustain/pantry/


A brief description of the institution’s other community partnerships to advance sustainability:
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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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