This is my first real topic! yay. So a project that the other TAs and I have sort of inherited is the updating and reorganizing the Sustainability Directory for University of Pittsburgh. Sounds daunting, no? The idea I had for it was to organize the contacts by responsibility, that way it would be easier to pinpoint who to talk to if one had a suggestion for how to "green the system" we'll say. That is where you will come in handy...HELP ME! I know a lot of you have worked with the university before on various issues so you probably have some good insight on how the hierarchy does business, who's in charge of what and how decisions get made.

I'd like to propose brainstorming the following topics for now;

Recycling, Food Services and Energy

-what department(s) is in charge of it? What other responsibilities do they have?
-Contact information within that department?
-How are decisions made in this department?
-any other useful information

I figure if we all chip in the little bit we know we could put together a very useful document for future students! It will be especially useful for Ward's classes but I'm certain the other environmental groups on campus will find it handy also.

ok, GO!

Ok, I'll put down a bunch of what I know - Sony & Jess, you probably know a bunch more, so maybe you can add specifics?

Recycling and Energy are both handled by Facilities Management. Out of the three Managements (Facilities, Property, and Housing), Facilities is the first among equals, and possibly just the first. Recycling has been evolving over the years from just paper to including almost anything you can come up with, aside from strange plastics (6-7's) and a few other arcane things - the trick is that most of the weirder things have a much less standardized procedure. The overall recycling guidelines are available here, and should be one of the first things to move to a University-wide sustainability site. We do have a recycling coordinator (but I forget his name right now and it's not on the website). I believe additions to what is recycled is made based on a) whether the company we use (which is the same as the city) can handle it and b) whether a convenient system can be set up. We do theoretically have single stream recycling.

Energy is a little more nebulous in terms of who manages it, probably because it comes in a lot of different forms. Heating is done primarily through steam, produced now via the new natural gas plant up on the hill - very energy efficient even though it's still fossil fuels, and extremely low particulates. Cooling I'm actually not sure of - my guess is that it's building based HVAC, but it might be chilled water from a central spot. I'm not sure who runs either of those. Decisions there are made primarily on economic grounds, though there is a tendency to choose high-efficiency processes if the cost difference is not too great - Facilities' sustainability record is pretty good (they just don't have a set standard).
Electricity is paid for through Facilities, primarily bought through Duquesne Light, and metering is available at a rough resolution - aka Towers' consumption is available and distinct (in theory), but Tower B's is not. For anyone who's interested, the electricity mix in this area tends to be ~38% nuclear (via Beaver Valley) and ~7% renewable (a bunch of wind from the east). I do not believe that the university has an interest (and it would almost certainly have to be economic) in purchasing more renewables. Perhaps we could use Green Fund money to pay for X amount of extra wind-based kWh's a year.
I'm sorry I don't know more people.

Jess, I'm going to let you talk about food since I learned most of what I know via their presentations and you. Sony, similar for details.

Food Services:

To preface, I could literally go on for hours about what Pitt Dining Services is doing in regards to sustainability. Their efforts continuously impress me! If anyone is interested in more detailed information, please don't hesitate to contact me. For now, here are the answers to Allison's questions:

1) What department(s) is in charge of it? What other responsibilities do they have?
-- Dining Services is in charge of all on-campus dining facilities: The Perch, Market Central, Schenley Cafe, Cathedral Cafe, as well as all coffee carts, Catering Services, Einstein's, Taco Bell, and both Quick Zones. The food supplied in the dining halls is supplied by Paragon Monteverde (a local Pittsburgh-based company) under Sodexo. (Side note: Paragon is committed to providing as much local and organic food as economically feasible and according to season (here is a list of some of their local suppliers: http://www.paragon-monteverde.com/Parag ... evised.pdf))
--FYI: Dining Services does NOT have any control over the Peterson Events Center
-- Dining Services' responsibilities include hiring/training employees in all of its units, ordering, preparing, and serving on-campus food, catering on-campus events, et cetera. I was hired in the fall as a sustainability-focused work study student, and am currently working on keeping a log of all their sustainability projects, creating a handbook that highlights such initiatives and posting it on their website, and brainstorming/researching future sustainability systems/projects.

-Contact information within that department?
Jodi Ludovici, jludovici@bc.pitt.edu. She is the person to contact with any questions, suggestions, and ideas about sustainability projects on campus. She is incredibly receptive to student input and feedback, so do not hesitate to ask her about any projects/systems you would like to see initiated on campus.

2) How are decisions made in this department?
--This depends. Jodi usually has the final say on what projects are initiated, but there are many people she often consults prior to making such decisions, i.e. head chefs, managers of different units, etc.

3) Any other useful information?
Just to give you a quick overview of some projects that are currently in progress:
-- Waste Vegetable oil is picked up regularly from Market Central and the Perch to be converted by Pitt Chemistry students into VeggieDiesel fuel (one of our catering trucks currently runs on this blend)
-- The Perch and Market Central both run on Trayless systems
-- Styrofoam has been eliminated all across campus (with the exception of Chick-Fil-A...someone should write to the head of the company so we can change this!)
-- We are currently trying to start a pre-consumer composting system which will reduce our food waste by approximately 90%
-- Environmentally friendly cleaning products are used in all of our facilities and a special dosage system allows us to cut down on the amount of soaps and cleaning solutions hat are used.
-- The campus-wide Refill Program gives students a .25 discount for using a reusable mug for hot drinks, as well as .99 cent refills for all cold fountain drinks

I don't really have a whole lot to add to what Alex and Jess had to say about Energy, Recycling, and Food Services. I do however, have some thoughts on actually implementing this directory.

The Keystone Environmental Youth Coalition (the unfinished website is keycoalition.wordpress.com) just set up an account on PB Works (www.pbworks.com) that basically allows organizations to set up a wikipedia style page for sharing information. I definitely recommend checking out what they have to offer!

Here are two examples:

1) http://keycoalition.pbworks.com/

2) http://sustainablestatenetworks.pbworks.com/

We can talk more about it in the future. Forums are great, but I'd do better bouncing around ideas in a group for this sort of thing.

Everyone can share their ideas. All of you have a great knowledge of this, I think that based on sustainable development is a dynamic process, so that all people realize their potential.