Sign up for the 2016 Two Wheels Lots of Green Bike Tour! Posted on July 28, 2016 by wpengine We are so excited to be hosting the Two Wheels Lots of Green (2WLOG) bike tour coming August 20th, 2016! We have been working hard with our partners in the Hilltop and will be offering a wide variety of projects to feature on the tour. In case you are not familiar with 2WLOG, it is a guided bike tour designed to connect residents to (and, let's be honest, show off!) GTECH’s vacant lot reclamation projects. This year, we are showcasing projects ranging…Read More
Building Connections in Wilkinsburg Posted on July 26, 2016 by wpengine This post was written by Max, one of our summer interns! Stay tuned for more updates about his experience. To contact Max, email him at interns@gtechstrategies.org with "Max" in the subject line. My time at GTECH has been terrific. I’ve learned a lot and have been exposed to new and exciting experiences, like getting poison sumac on my third day on the job. However, what I am most thrilled by is the fresh and creative thinking I am surrounded by and I get…Read More
Kids In Allentown Making an Impact Posted on July 18, 2016 by wpengine Our Green Playces Initiative has completed two sites to date (Northside and Homewood) and will complete four sites this calendar year (Hilltop, McKeesport, Wilkinsburg, and the Hill District). We selected The Brashear Association’s Allentown Learning and Engagement Center as the primary partner for the Hilltop Site. We couldn’t be more excited about this relationship and are excited to debut the site at our annual Two Wheels Lots of Green event on August 20th. Our annual bike tour will highlight projects we…Read More
FedEx Ground Delivers Posted on July 11, 2016 by wpengine "Fast. Reliable. FedEx Ground." That's the tagline to a recent FedEx Ground ad. It's also how their employees work and give back to the community. FedEx Ground, whose headquarters is in Moon Township, recently provided GTECH with funds to establish the FedEx Ground Impact Award, which is intended to recognize projects that exhibit significant scope, connectivity, and community engagement. This spring, Jamie Balser of South Side Slopes, a ReClaim South: Sustaining Momentum Ambassador, was awarded the fund for his beautification project…Read More
GTECH Office Environment Posted on July 8, 2016 by Grounded Strategies 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 interns@gtechstrategies.org 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…Read More
Ambassador Alums in Action Posted on July 5, 2016 by wpengine Like clockwork, I get 6-8 emails every single day between noon and 12:05pm. I know what you’re thinking. My fan mail gets held and released only once a day. I’m pretty popular, what can I say? Actually, these emails don’t come from real people at all, but are automatically generated through Google Alerts. Most people know that at GTECH we have Ambassador cohorts—groups of community leaders in different parts of the city and county who come together for about a…Read More
Introducing Shy Posted on June 29, 2016 by wpengine Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming Shy to the team for the summer as a design intern. She'll be working mostly with our Green Playces team. We asked Shy to tell us a little more about herself, and wanted to share what she wrote with you too: My name is Shynika Deandrae Stokes, but you can call me Shy. I am originally from Orangeburg, South Carolina, a small college town where the majority of the residents works at various industrial…Read More
Celebrate National Pollinator Week Posted on June 24, 2016 by wpengine 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…Read More
To Our Health Posted on June 16, 2016 by wpengine 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…Read More
We’re in for GWC 4.0! Posted on June 14, 2016 by wpengine GTECH Strategies is excited to participate again in the Pittsburgh Green Workplace Challenge, a local competition put on by Sustainable Pittsburgh to recognize and encourage sustainable achievements by businesses and organizations. Even though we have a green and healthy environment in mind when designing our projects, the Green Workplace challenge encouraged us to look internally at our office behaviors and policies and make them even greener. If you remember last year, GTECH’s hard work and dedication led us to victory…Read More
Using Community Input and Data to Make Informed Decisions Posted on June 10, 2016 by wpengine Some of the many things we love here at GTECH include community input, innovative solutions, working with great people to improve our region's community and environmental health, data, and transforming liabilities into assets. For these reasons and many more, we were very excited to partner recently with Economic Development South (EDS) and the Saw Mill Run Watershed Association (SMRWA) to conduct a Green Boulevard Property Acquisition Study along Route 51 and Library Road. The long-term vision for the Green Boulevard…Read More
Homewood Greening Projects Update Posted on June 7, 2016 by wpengine Our projects in Homewood have been taking off this spring! We are excited to show off our hard work and to give a big thank you to all who have volunteered thus far. As a recap, Operation Better Block (OBB) is working on a Neighborhood Partnership Program called the Homewood Cluster Plan. We're working with OBB to help with the transformation of five vacant lots in key locations to become green gateways to the community. There has been a lot of activity…Read More