Pittsburgh looks to reduce waste with climate change ‘action plan’
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Pittsburgh officials said they’re eyeing ways to cut back on waste, be more environmentally friendly and prepare for potential impacts of climate change as part of the city’s Climate Action Plan.
Flore Marion, the city’s energy advisor, said the city’s sustainability and resilience team are working to combat climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving recycling and composting programs, and encouraging others in the region to do the same.
“There’s really a sense of urgency we’re starting to see,” she said.
The climate action plan outlines the city’s strategies for reaching its environmental impact goals.
It includes goals of transitioning to 100% renewable energy in city facilities and cutting energy and water use at city facilities in half by 2030. It also aspires to a fossil-fuel-free fleet and a citywide reduction in transportation emissions of 50%.
The plan also calls for the city to be waste-free by 2030, which is something city officials have been “really focused on,” said Afton Giles, principal planner with the city’s sustainability and resilience division.
To eliminate unnecessary waste, she said, the city is looking to transition to a “circular economy” where things are reused rather than discarded. Giles said the city has already made strides to that goal by providing recycling bins to city residents and launching a pilot program to explore composting options.
But there’s a lot of work left to do to eliminate waste, she said.
The city serves more than 200,000 meals each year to vulnerable residents, including through programs at recreation centers and healthy active living centers, she said. About 20% of that food is wasted, she said.
About 34% of the city’s food waste comes from residents, and another 30% comes from restaurants, Giles said.
Of all the food that is sent to landfills from the city, she said, about 40% of it is “perfectly healthy food” that could be consumed by people or animals.
“There’s really no reason we should be wasting as much as we are,” she said, particularly when one in five Pittsburghers are considered “food insecure.”
Giles said the city is exploring ways to partner with other municipalities and entities throughout the region to launch a concerted effort to reduce waste and bolster recycling and composting initiatives.
Officials during a post-agenda meeting with members of City Council said the city also is considering encouraging or requiring more events to meet zero-waste goals.
Aside from managing waste, officials said they’re also looking at a variety of ways to reduce the city’s negative environmental impacts.
That could include encouraging people to use public transportation over private vehicles, providing more accessible electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and retrofitting city buildings to make them more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.
Officials said the city would need to retrofit about 15 city-owned buildings per year to be on track to reach the goals outlined in the climate action plan.
It’s a “hard political sell” to prioritize money for retrofitting city buildings over repairing bridges, paving streets or fixing landslides, said Councilwoman Erika Strassburger, D-Squirrel Hill. She acknowledged retrofitting buildings isn’t often prioritized in the city’s budget process.
“The money we use to retrofit that building does come back to us over time,” Giles said. She said the process leads to cost savings that could allow city officials to later invest more in other areas.
The City-County Building is currently the biggest energy consumer of all of the city’s sites, Strassburger said.
City officials also are preparing for a future that could be impacted by negative impacts of climate change, including more rain than usual, said Kyla Prendergast, an environmental planner for the city.
New developments now have to consider how climate change could lead to more rainfall when crafting stormwater plans, rather than relying solely on historic modeling, she said.
“We have made progress to ensure that any developments are going to be able to manage the stormwater levels we’re seeing,” she said, adding that the city should aim for additional stormwater management and green infrastructure to mitigate potential problems around heavier rainfalls.
Officials also touted the city’s efforts to use clean energy sources. City officials last week announced the Western Pennsylvania Energy Consortium will be using renewable energy from an Ohio wind farm as part of the city’s transition to cleaner energy sources.
Strassburger applauded the city’s “transformational work” to transitioning to more environmentally-friendly practices that could benefit “generations well into the future.”
She said she plans to review the city’s climate-related efforts annually to monitor the progress Pittsburgh is making in reaching its climate goals.