Category: Inspiration

This post was written by Marquise, one of our summer interns! Stay tuned for more information about his experience and the projects he is working on. To contact Marquise, email him at [email protected] with Marquise in the subject line.  It can be kind of intimidating trying to build relationships with those people you barely know. That intimidation can come from a few things like not being comfortable or not being able to adapt to your new surroundings. When I started…

Did you know that June 20 - 26 is National Pollinator Week? In celebration, we'd like to share some neat facts with you and tips about how you can help support the health of pollinators. To start, here are a few fast facts that illustrate the importance of pollinators: Pollinators are a Keystone Species - meaning that many other species of animals and plants rely on them to survive. They are also an Indicator Species - meaning that their health…

GTECH, as many of our readers know, stands for Growth Through Energy and Community Health.  But what is Community Health, exactly? Wait a minute.  For that matter, what is Health? It is, presumably, something we all want - for ourselves, our family, our communities, our environment, our planet (sometimes in that order, though that logic may be a bit flawed, as will be made clear shortly).  Nevertheless, what it is, exactly, is a much more complicated question. An overly simple explanation…

This year's World Environment Day is on Sunday, June 5th. This year, it's hosted by Angola, with the theme "fight against the illegal trade in wildlife" Sure, that sounds great, you might be thinking, but we don't have lions or elephants here to protect. How is this stuff related to me? But World Environment Day is more than celebrities imploring you to stop buying ivory. At its core, World Environment Day is about realizing nature's beautiful bounty and making sure that…

The warm weather appears to be here to stay and it is not too late to put your green thumbs to use! Don't have the outdoor space to accommodate a garden? Check out Lots to Love and find a lot in need of your attention. Lots to Love is a online tool designed to equip Pittsburgh residents with the resources they need to navigate and utilize vacant land in their neighborhoods. We see such parcels of land not as a waste of…

If you need a quick primer on the Circle Economy - check out this video that Andre shared Rethinking progress: the Circular Economy. The circular economy can be applied to help communities minimize waste, maximize value creation, and generate new opportunity for prosperity. -Andre Struker The circular economy is all about closing resource loops, mimicking natural ecosystems in the way we organize our society and businesses. Andre Struker, Strategic Advisor to Amsterdam's water utility Waternet, came to Pittsburgh to share his expertise on how the facility's…

PCRG's Community Development Summit took place this week. The topic this year was Power of Place. GTECH, along with our partners - Propel Schools, Healthy Ride, Manchester Growing Together Garden, and One Northside - hosted a mobile workshop: It Takes a Village: Addressing Vacancy Through Community Partnerships in Pittsburgh’s Northside. There’s lots to love, because lots need love. And you can see it happening by bike! The tour highlighted some of GTECH’s work with key partners over the past 3-5 years in Pittsburgh’s…

Citymart was not a real store - I knew that much.  But I didn’t really understand the name until I dug a little deeper.  Browse around the organization’s website and you may come across this passage: “Citymart partners with cities to rethink their spending habits so they focus on what problems they need to solve instead of what things they want to buy. Cities will spend money in better ways, create new opportunities for local businesses, and find the best…

...what they would do with a greenplayce. Part of what makes our Green Playces program so neat is our community driven design process. So we asked a class of third graders from McKeesport what they would like out of a greenplayce. We weren't really sure what we would get back. The results were pretty tremendous. We got letters from each student, and pictures from some. They described classes they would like to have outside, opportunities for education outside the classroom…

Happy Administrative Professionals Week! Of course, we think you should celebrate them everyday, but still take a special moment this week to celebrate the Administrative Professionals that you know. Originally called National Secretaries Week, this celebration started in 1952, to recognize "the secretary, upon whose skills, loyalty, and efficiency the functions of which business and government depend." This week of celebration and thanks was originally a part of a movement to recognize the work of administrative staff, grow the field,…