SUSTAINABILITY OFFICERS:

Showing How Water Matters for World Environment Day

Feature Organization: Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

Sustainability Coordinator/Representative: Kelly Ogrodnik, Sustainable Design and Programs Manager

Employees: 100

Individuals impacted: 300,000 annually.

Notable sustainability projects:

The Green Heart of Pittsburgh

For Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, the past is prologue to a future as ingenious as the region it serves. Built as a repository of horticultural excellence by Henry Phipps in 1893 at the height of Pittsburgh’s industrial prowess, Phipps has evolved from the nation’s first teaching conservatory to a distinguished eco-champion among North America’s 500 public gardens, and an exhibit space ranked among the nation’s top conservatory experiences. Phipps exhibits and programs have informed more than 3.5 million visitors since 1993 – including attendees from every state and 56 foreign countries – about the importance of conservation, botany, eco-harmony, and scientific fields while leading all to the pleasures of the garden.

In recent years, Phipps has addressed public demand for a leader, advocate and information nexus for energy-efficiency in the built and natural environments by initiating a three-phase expansion of the Phipps campus. Expansion began in 2005 with the construction of its earth sheltered LEED Silver Welcome Center – the first of its kind in a public garden – which presents new guest amenities including a Green Restaurant Certified® café and gift shop in a unique building equipped with an array of energy-saving and eco-friendly features. In December 2006, the Phipps expansion reached another milestone with the opening of the 12,000-square-foot Tropical Forest Conservatory – the nation’s largest, changing-theme tropical forest display space and the most energy-efficient conservatory in the world. With new features cascading indoor waterfalls, a canopy overlook, and interactive “research stations,” The Tropical Forest brings a completely unique addition to the Phipps experience while incorporating a revolutionary heating and cooling approach – eliminating the greenhouse effect with passive cooling – and a sweeping palette of energy saving technologies and strategies including computer-controlled shading and ventilation, energy efficient glass, root-zone heating and thermal massing, and a solid oxide fuel cell.

The ambitious master plan now enters its third phase with the design and construction of a Living Building which will be the world’s greenest building, the Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL). The CSL will house leading-edge environmental education and research programs in a facility that is itself a working demonstration model of a variety of alternative, renewable energy strategies and devices – a public teaching tool, innovated with technically feasible, commercially viable technologies which can be replicated by others. In this way, Phipps is establishing a robust, transparent, and enlightening guest experience, spurring increased awareness and sounding a call to action for all who step through its doors.

Notable Facts:

• LEED certified: 11,885 sq. ft. - New Construction
• LEED registered: 53,000 sq. ft. - LEED Existing Building: Operations & Maintenance
• 100% of electricity offset by Green-e  Certified renewable energy credits
• Most energy efficient conservatory in the world
• State-of-the-art open roof production greenhouses
• First fuel cell in a conservatory
• Future of site of one the world’s first Living Buildings
  

Pittsburgh's Sustainability Officers: Connecting regionally to contribute globally