5 minute read
Sustainability Engagement Increasing Across the University
The Mascaro Center serves as a key partner and contributor to sustainability initiatives throughout campus,helping to raise sustainability as a foundational strengthfor the University. All of our programs and initiativesaim to createa productive and supportive environment that elevates the impact of our efforts within Pitt and the broader community.
Gena Kovalcik, Co-Director
PITT COLLABORATIONS AND PARTNERSHIPS
The University of Pittsburgh boasts 16 sustainability-related centers across campus. The Mascaro Center is one of the oldest of these programs and serves as a collaborator and convener for a broad range of sustainability initiatives throughout campus and our community.
FIRST YEAR STUDENTS
In collaboration with Residence Life, PittServes, and the Office of Sustainability, the Mascaro Center is helping to ensure that first year students understand the University’s deep culture and commitment to sustainability. Initiatives include adding a sustainability module the Pitt First Year Online Orientation for the first time in 2019. In Fall 2019, a sustainability gift was also distributed to all 4,200+ first year students upon their arrival.
MCSI is also leading University efforts to infuse sustainability into undergraduate education. Partnering with PittServes, the Office of Sustainability, and Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, MCSI has trained student volunteers to provide sustainability presentations within first year seminars. Last year, our team of student leaders provided 30 presentations impacting over 900 Pitt first year students. In Fall 2020, Danielle AndrewsBrown (MCSI Len Peters Fellow), also created and taught a new First-Year Programs’ Academic Community entitled Nature/Cities/Humansin Fall 2020. This course was designed to give first-year students an academic orientation on sustainability.
Dr. Leslie Marshall, Associate Director of the Center for Sustainable Business, and Gena Kovalcik are leading a team to assess the possibility of implementing an interdisciplinary graduate or professional program in sustainability that draws on Pitt’s existing expertise across multiple schools and centers. Consisting of faculty from 5 Schools and 3 Centers, the team submitted a Chancellors Seed Grant in Spring 2020. If approved, we will generate a scan of similar programs at other institutions, assess the market demand, identify topical gaps, and points of intersection across disciplines and evaluate our competitive advantage. The grant would also enable us to assess the potential for revenue generation; ranking improvements; and student, staff, and faculty recruitment and retention, given different program types.
SUSTAINABILITY ALUMNI NEWSLETTER
In Winter 2019, the Mascaro Center and Office of Sustainability collaborated to create a quarterly newsletter
highlighting campus-wide sustainability achievements. The third edition was distributed in mid-June to a growing network of nearly 800 alumni and friends. MCSI intern, Anna Coleman, has conducted interviews with over a dozen Pitt sustainability-related alumni and is gathering their personal journeys and stories for highlights in future newsletters and other mediums.
PITT SUSTAINBILITY CHALLENGE
The Pitt Sustainability Challenge is a collaboration
between the Mascaro Center and Pitt Office of Sustainability to develop a publicly accessible competition
that will solicit proposals for project-based solutions that will advance goals articulated in the Pitt Sustainability Plan. The Challenge will focus on solutions for carbon neutrality, water, and zero waste. Delivered in partnership with Common Pool, the planning team has developed the following Challenge framework pieces to-date: competition basis and rules, web design, online application, scoring rubric, and pertinent legal and information technology questions and requirements. Next steps include recruiting competition judges and securing internal and external implementation funding. Originally anticipated to be launched in Fall 2020, the competition has been temporarily delayed due to COVID-19; the new launch date is expected to be in 2021, though exact timing has yet to be determined.
2020 SUSTAINABILITY AWARD WINNERS Since 2015, MCSI has led the Pitt’s campus-wide awards program recognizing faculty, staff, students, and groups who are making an extraordinary impact on campus
FACULTY Dr. Danielle Andrews-Brown, Geology & Environmental Science Dr. Shanti Gamper-Rabindran, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
STAFF Liza Allison, Industrial Engineering Tiara Arnold, Housing, Housekeeping
STUDENTS Ellie Cadden, Environmental Studies, ’20 Sarah Hart, Environmental Studies, ’20
GROUPS Business Staff Collaboration led by Chris Driscoll, Greg Guzewicz, and Karri Rogers Zero Waste Period Initiative led by Pitt Planned Parenthood and SOOS
GREEN SPEAKEASY
MCSI’s Green Speakeasy events exemplify our commitment to inspiring networking and collaboration among Pitt’s sustainability-minded faculty, students, and staff. Our FY20 events highlighted faculty expertise and sustainability leadership throughout campus, including a mock “debate” on federal environmental policy between GSPIA and Law. The most recent Speakeasy event spotlighted the newer Pittsburgh Water
Collaboratory. Approximately 50 faculty, staff and students participate in each event.
PITT DAY OF GIVING
For two years running, MCSI has been the only sustainability Center invited to participate in Pitt’s Day of Giving. Located in the “Places, Experiences + More” category, MCSI doubled
support in its second participation year, gaining increased visibility and support for one of our priority initiatives: the Living Lab for Sustainable Solutions (more below).
MCSI and the Office of Sustainability have also been working with PAE to develop a more defined fundraising agenda for Pitt Sustainability. A 2020 accomplishment included being asked to provide a Telefund Information Sheet to guide student callers on sustainability progress at Pitt and potential fundraising opportunities.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
MCSI sponsored the 2020 Community Engaged
Scholarship Forum; Gena Kovalcik also served as a
member of the event’s University-wide steering
committee,
led by the Office of Community and Government Relations and the Office of the Provost. The event celebrates the diversity of community-engaged work across the University of Pittsburgh where faculty, students, staff, and community members present their community-engaged work; discover new avenues of partnership; network with those who do similar work; and celebrate Pitt's commitment to community engagement.
As part of the Forum Dr. Michael Blackhurst (MCSI Len Peters Fellow) and Barbara Granito led a workshop titled "Using Science to Improve Science Communication." Participants learned about known cognition barriers inhibiting communication between experts and audiences -- and practiced skills aimed at overcoming these barriers by designing science communication related to climate change.
2025 PLAN FOR PITT
While the Plan for Pitt team is still in the early stages of analyzing survey and workshop input from more than 1,100 stakeholders, a set of four common themes have emerged. The themes include 1) Improving collaboration across the University and with external partners, 2) Focusing on health and wellness, 3) Integrating sustainability, and 4) Leveraging data and analytics. The MCSI leadership team attended several of the Planning Workshops and is optimistic that sustainability will become a core attribute of the 2025 Plan.
