STAYING IN THE KNOW

C4S EVENTS and WORKSHOPS

Smart Investment in Our Region's Valuable Infrastructure

Friday, October 12
8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Location: Gateway Clipper Fleet
Cost: Sustainable Pttsburgh/C4S or ASCE Members - $100; Non-Member - $125; Students - $25

More information and registration

Click Here for the Complete Agenda

Overview

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Environmental and Water Resources Institute, and Sustainable Pittsburgh's Champions for Sustainability network are proud to present "Smart Investment in our Region's Valuable Infrastructure." This daylong conference will involve identification and discussion of engineering solutions towards moving this region's vital infrastructure towards a more sustainable and healthy future.

The conference will focus on three cornerstone aspects of this region's infrastructure that is in need of immediate attention. These aspects include:

• Locks and dams and the consequences on the region if this vital piece of infrastructure continues to be ignored
• Asset management and properly allocating and appropriating funds in complex political arenas
• This region's vast supply of water resources and leveraging this rich commodity to improve the local economy and attract businesses to this region.
  
  Numerous high profile speakers from around the nation are expected to attend and present engineering solutions to these problems in a panel/workshop style setting. All attendees will be encouraged to share ideas in how to best address the items above.

Contact: Kyle Plummer at kplummer@GFNET.com

Green Workplace Challenge Events and Workshops

Workshop #11

Learn about LEED

Friday, August 24, 2012
8:30 – 10:30 am

Location: Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, 1 North Linden Street, Duquesne, PA 15110

Cost: FREE for Green Workplace Challenge participants; $25.00 for non GWC participants.

Continental Breakfast Provided

Come learn about how Green Workplace Challenge actions and activities from the past eleven months can position your business for potential LEED certification. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

Presenters will offer their experience in getting facilities certified for the LEED Existing Building: Operations and Maintenance (EBOM) standard to help others learn the process, the benefits, and key insights.

Click here for more information and registration.

Workshop #10

Water Conservation Strategies

Friday, July 27, 2012
8:30 – 10:30 am

Location: Bayer Building 6 (Freddies’ Café), 100 Bayer Road, Pittsburgh 15205

Cost: FREE for Green Workplace Challenge participants; $25.00 for non GWC participants.

Continental Breakfast Provided

Join fellow Green Workplace Challenge participants and others in an opportunity to interact with experts on the topic of water conservation. Following the program, a tour of the Bayer EcoCommercial Conference Center will be offered to interested workshop attendees.

Workshop #8

Waste Reduction Strategies

Thursday, May 17, 2012
8:30 – 10:30 am

Location: Education Complex, Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium, Pittsburgh, PA

Participants in this workshop will have the opportunity to interact with a panel of experts on the topic of waste reduction. Reducing waste, reusing materials and equipment, recycling, and composting all contribute to saving energy.

Better product choices can minimize the energy intensity of what it takes to make products and transport them. Reusing products extends the life of the embodied energy that went into making that product. Recycling products using well-planned logistics and supply chain coordination makes materials available at lower cost and energy. Composting captures valuable organic materials.

A strategically-designed program for managing waste can cut costs and produce a revenue stream for valuable materials that would otherwise be transported to a landfill.

Workshop #7

Community Group Certifications

Friday, April 27, 2012
8:30 – 10:30 am

Location: CCI Center, 64 South 14th Street, Pittsburgh, PA

Cost: FREE for Green Workplace Challenge participants; $25.00 for non GWC participants.

Continental Breakfast Provided

Participants in this workshop will be invited to learn about a number of certifications and programs offered by area organizations for which the Green Workplace Challenge offers competition points. The workshop will feature an overview of each certifying organization, followed by networking, during which participants are encouraged to engage in discussion with the providers of these certifications and programs to learn about the specific benefits of the programs to their organizations.

Workshop #6

Leveraging the Market Advantage of Sustainability

Friday, March 30, 2012
8:30 – 10:30 am

Location: Duquesne University, Rockwell Hall, Room 505

Cost: FREE for Green Workplace Challenge participants; $25.00 for non GWC participants.

Continental Breakfast Provided

Participants at this workshop will learn practical ways that they can build upon their Green Workplace Challenge actions to leverage additional benefits, such as cost savings, productivity increases, employee engagement, and overall market advantage. This workshop emphasizes the strategic ways to capture these additional benefits in ways that are not easily replicated by competitors. The core emphasis focuses on resources and capabilities for your organization that are embedded mainly in people, not just technology.

The workshop will be facilitated by Dr. Robert Sroufe and Dr. Nagaraj Sivasubramaniam, both faculty members in the Sustainbility-MBA program at Duquesne University.

This event is the 6th of 12 workshops in a year-long series of Green Workplace Challenge participant workshops.

Workshop #5

Hands-on Workshop: Resources for Getting Ahead

Friday, February 24, 2012
8:30 – 10:30 am

Location: Regional Enterprise Tower, 23rd Floor, 425 6th Ave, Pgh., PA 15219

Cost: FREE for Green Workplace Challenge participants; $25.00 for non GWC participants.

Continental Breakfast Provided

Participants at this workshop will work with a team of experts and assistants who will help participants maximize their performance in the Green Workplace Challenge. The Green Workplace Challenge support team will provide one-on-one assistance to help structure Portfolio Manager Accounts, enter utility data, set the right baseline, and submit completed actions so that participants can quickly be credited with competition points. The workshop will also feature some time-saving recommendations so that competitors can get as many points as possible amidst tight time budgets.

This workshop will be especially helpful for:

- Small and medium sized businesses who do not have full time staff dedicated to sustainability programs but want to cash in on the benefits of energy saving and sustainability initiatives. Many small businesses can rocket themselves ahead in the competition in just a few hours of participating in this workshop.

- Large businesses that do have dedicated sustainability staff but need to navigate complex portfolios so that they can claim credit for their achievements as efficiently as possible.

- All participants who want to be able to ask questions about the Green Workplace Challenge Manual in order to maximize point potential.

This event is the 5th of 12 workshops in a year-long series of Green Workplace Challenge participant workshops.

Click here for more information and registration.

Green Workplace Challenge 1st Qtr. Celebration/Workshop #4

See Who the Leaders Are!

Friday, January 27, 2012
8:00 – 11:45 am

Location: Fairmont Pittsburgh

Cost: FREE for Green Workplace Challenge participants; $25.00 for non GWC participants.

Breakfast Provided

Come celebrate the early achievements of the bold cadre of companies and organizations that have risen to the call for action and competition through the Green Workplace Challenge (GWC)!

Participants at this workshop will interact with a panel of companies to learn what drives them to compete in the GWC, what actions they have put into place, and how different strategies are paying off.

The event begins with an inspirational keynote by Dr. Valerie Patrick, Bayer Corporation's Sustainability Coordinator, about the market opportunities, innovation drivers, and the financial returns that Bayer is pursuing in the spirit of competition embodied in the GWC.

Participants can also engage with a panel on innovative lighting and energy efficiency technologies that have direct benefits to energy savings (and GWC competition points).

Lastly, the workshop invites participants to share their concerns and needs about their greening strategies with experts during a closing networking session.

Discover what regional impact the competition has already accomplished in just 4 months, recognize the achievements of the competitors, and learn how your organization can adopt what has worked for these leaders.

Click here for more information and registration.

For more information about the Green Workplace Challenge and its workshop series, visit the Green Workplace Challenge Website.

Sustainability and Healthcare Series: Improving Healing Environments

Sustainable Pittsburgh’s sustainable business network, Champions for Sustainability (C4S) has launched a series of workshops that advance the mutually reinforcing agendas of sustainability and healthcare.

The emphasis for each event involves articulating the health outcomes, healthcare benefits, and business case, as well as best practices, resources, examples, and how to get started.

Click here for more information.