PULSE (Pittsburgh Urban Leadership Service Experience) partners with local nonprofits to develop young, talented, university graduates to be the next generation of servant leaders in Pittsburgh to help transform our city. Participants receive mentoring, job training and skill development. They commit to an 11 month work placement with such groups as the Western PA Conservancy, the Andy Warhol Museum, Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, Venture Outdoors, East End Cooperative Ministry and the Union Project. PULSE has worked with over 100 nonprofit organizations in the past 16 years.

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The Silk Screen 6th Annual Asian Film Festival kicks off this week in Pittsburgh with an opening night Gala on May 6th at the Omni William Penn Hotel. Silk Screen aims to put Pittsburgh on the map not only for having one of the best Asian film festivals, but by creating a center for Asian culture. As they note on their website, over 40,000 Asians live in Western PA. The Silk Screen Asian Arts and Culture Organization hopes to build a world class Asia center in Pittsburgh as there is no significant center of this kind between New York City and San Francisco. This year’s film festival runs from May 6th to May 15th and includes films from China, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Japan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, the Middle East, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. You can see a full list of the films to be screened here and purchase festival passes here.

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A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial called for it in December 2009. PA State Rep. Scott Conklin’s House Bill 763 calls for it and has 16 co-sponsors. Governor Tom Corbett was for it — at least while he was campaigning. The “it’” is a Pennsylvania state constitutional convention. As the Post-Gazette noted:

Pennsylvania has the most restrictive constitutional amendment process in the United States, according to the state Constitutional Convention Commission, which is made up of Democracy Rising, Common Cause, the Commonwealth Foundation and the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania. These organizations don’t always agree on remedies, but they spoke with one voice when they requisitioned a study on constitutional conventions because they agree that Pennsylvania needs a lesson in integrity and effectiveness.

The nonpartisan, nonprofit Civic Research Alliance, which did the study, made no recommendation for action, but spelled out what is essential if a convention is to succeed. “Public support for a convention is strongly correlated with general discontent among the electorate, not only with government but with a range of institutions.”

We’ve got that covered.

Of the four civic groups only Democracy Rising is calling for a constitutional convention now.

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For over 40 years, Earth Day has been celebrated on April 22nd as a way to educate and mobilize people to making a commitment to a better environment and sustainability. In Pittsburgh, April 22nd will also be celebrated as “Greener Pittsburgh Day.” Greener Expressions, a Lawrenceville company, is spearheading the Greener Pittsburgh initiative. The idea behind Greener Pittsburgh is to have a one-stop online location for citizens, businesses, organizations and government to find and promote local green products, services and information to create a more sustainable Pittsburgh. In a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, Greener Expressions’ Chief Executive Officer, Greg DiMedio, explained that Greener Pittsburgh will be an online marketplace to “help the restaurant owner looking for biodegradable carry-out containers, the resident looking for an environmentally responsible dry cleaner and the community group looking for a stamp of environmental respectability.” Councilman Bill Peduto has been a covener and advisor to Greener Pittsburgh — helping announce the initiative last year and providing funding.

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If you were in control of a city’s energy, water, retail and banking industries, could you make a better, more sustainable place to live? If you answered in the affirmative, you can now test whether that’s true with IBM’s CityOne game. IBM believes that playing their game will enable industries and municipalities to apply innovative technologies to city planning and learn what kind of outcomes they can expect from that technology (but you can play too).

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We talk a lot about sustainability at this blog, so now we’re asking: How energy efficient is your home? And, wouldn’t it be great if when you were buying or selling a home, you could reliably know how energy efficient it was? Well, twelve lucky Allegheny County residents are about to find out. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is partnering with counties, utilities, and non-profit organizations across the country to test and evaluate a Home Energy Score. The Home Energy Score will allow a homeowner to find out how their home’s energy performance compares with other homes in the same area. The DOE likens it to knowing a vehicle’s mile-per-gallon rating. A home energy assessor evaluates a home’s energy systems based on its attributes (furnace, windows, walls, etc.) and scores it on a rating system from 1 – 10 (with 10 being the best rating). They also offer suggestions for how to improve a home’s score and explain the cost savings to be had from making the recommended improvements. Allegheny County was only one of ten areas in the country selected by the DOE for a pilot of this new home energy label.

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Take a look under your kitchen or bathroom sink. What do you see? How about in your basement or garage — what’s there? If you’re like most people, you may find some ammonia or oven cleaner, perhaps some old cans of paint or paint thinners, maybe some antifreeze or motor oil, or weed killer or mothballs. All of these items are classified as “household hazardous waste” (HHW). These are common household chemical products that, if we think about it, we know we shouldn’t be tossing into a trash bag because it would be bad for the environment. So, in many homes, they sit and collect dust. In fact, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an average home can easily accumulate 100 pounds of these common chemicals.

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According to the United Nations Development Programme:

Globally, almost 1 billion people lack clean drinking water. 2.4 billion people have no access to hygienic sanitation facilities; 1.2 billion lack any sanitation facilities at all. Each day, an average of 5,000 children die due to water and sanitation related diseases, many easily preventable.

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Imagine a park nearly one acre in size and situated 841 feet in the air — at the highest point in downtown Pittsburgh — and you’ve imagined High Point Park. The U.S. Steel Tower is Pittsburgh’s tallest building. While it’s only ranked as the 121st tallest building in the world, its roof is “the largest, highest flat space on top of any building on earth” (mostly because unlike many buildings of similar height, it doesn’t taper in width from its lowest floors to its highest). The U.S. Steel Tower not only dominates Pittsburgh’s skyline, its roof also mimics Pittsburgh’s Golden Triangle. The building is triangular in shape and two of it’s sides align with the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers which form “The Point.” The High Point Investigation is exploring the possibilities of transforming this underutilized asset — which was once used as a heliport, but has now sat dormant for 19 years — into a cutting-edge green design, four-season, self-sustaining public space. The idea is the brainchild of David Bear (former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette travel editor and current Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University’s STUDIO for Creative Inquiry).

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ChargeCar is a project of Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute’s CREATE Lab. They’re hosting an open house today to unveil an all-electric 2002 Honda Civic. The car is a prototype for their ChargeCar Electric Vehicle Conversion Project. ChargeCar wants to change the way you drive by making electric cars both practical and affordable. Their goal is to revolutionize urban commuting. Best of all, they’ll start taking names today of people who would like to have their own converted vehicle. For now, they’ll only be converting Honda Civics, but plan to add other makes and models in the future. Attendees of the open house can ask questions of the ChargeCar team and representatives from local garages, take a test drive, and “kick the tires” so to speak. Councilman Bill Peduto is also scheduled to be on the program at the open house. There’s a $50 refundable deposit to get on the list and the expected cost of conversions will be discussed at the event.

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