The Blurgh

I’ve been writing about my internship at CRR for a while now, and it’s really been a tremendous experience thus far. Just this morning, though, I got the big news–we got the go-ahead to move forward with the Polish Hill project!

As I mentioned earlier on, this project was different than other projects CRR has pursued in the past. Not only was this project meant to implement neighborhood-wide improvements, but it also was designed to galvanize the community. A lot of the work I’ve been doing has been in that area–canvassing, meeting with neighbors, and trying to build support–and apparently it’s actually worked! I was looking over the final details of the plan, and it’s pretty ambitious:

• Conduct a neighborhood wide energy audit on buildings to identify structures which need better insulation or can benefit from other energy saving improvements, and then implement those improvements.

• Install locally manufactured solar panels on the sides of buildings and roofs that receive the most light (approximately 40 structures).

• Work with 10-20 home-owners and businesses to install water-reclamation systems

• Secure a parcel of land to be used as a community compost collection and distribution center, (which may also be turned into a biogas collector down the line)

• Assess the possibility of also building a medium-scale wind generator on that piece of land.

• Partner with a local biodiesel manufacturer to collect used frying oil from local businesses and homes and use it to create biodiesel, which will then be sold back to the neighborhood at a discount

• Provide general consultation to home and business owners on how to improve the energy-efficiency of their buildings.

The project is getting paid for by a number of sources, including the Polish Hill Neighborhood Association, city, state, and federal grants, and also from the home and business owners themselves. After-all, these improvements will save them money in the long run!

But more importantly, this is a huge project that neighbors are doing with and for each other. It never ceases to amaze me how tremendous and seemingly impossible things can get done when people come together and decide to make it happen.

I mentioned a few days ago how I was going with some other CRR folks to meet with a local biodiesel manufacturer.  As it turns out, we met with them at exactly the right time.

Unlike the ethanol craze in the late 2000s, biodiesel never saw a major spike in popularity, followed by a downturn–it’s always been on a steady uphill climb of acceptance. Mainstream biodiesel is still predominantly made from various vegetable oils, but it can be made from other types of fatty oils, including used vegetable oil and even animal fat.  When we were speaking with the owner of the plant, it became apparent that she first got into the biodiesel business because of this potential–at one point she told us, “If I could just find a group of businesses and consumers who weren’t afraid to go out on the ledge a little to organize themselves, we could build a very effective operation to take used frying oil, process it, and then sell it out on the market.” After we heard that, we knew we found an ally.

In the next week, we’re going to present a plan to the Polish Hill leaders to start a coordinated used frying oil collection service for both businesses and homes.  In return for the oil, the biodiesel plant will process it and sell it on the market and at a discount to any of the participating businesses and homes who have diesel vehicles (and to CRR, which has a lot of diesel vehicles).  I think people will be pretty excited about the plan, but I’m still a little nervous about the presentation!

For the past few months, I’ve been almost solely working on the community outreach portion of my internship at CRR. Last week I got a glimpse at another side, vendor outreach, and it’s a completely different animal.

The community side is a lot of canvasing, petitioning, meeting with people–things that any community organizer would be very familiar with. I’m not sure what to classify the vendor side as…maybe non-profit development work, or sales? In the scheme of things, it really is a very important part of the business. It involves meeting with businesses and manufacturers in the area, and sometimes outside, to pitch the mission of CRR and secure good prices on whatever it is that they sell and/or make, which can be anything from lumber to solar cells.

According to the folks that I’ve been working with, since CRR started 15 years ago there’s been a huge upswing of vendor’s and suppliers in Southwestern PA, especially for the more high-tech components. In the beginning, people were telling stories about how they were traveling across the country for the latest and greatest stuff to come out, but now it seems that the development of new ideas has caught up with the research in our own neck of the woods.

Today I’m going with some other CRR folks to see a local biodiesel producer who’s been around for almost 2 decades now. They’re someone that we’ve worked with before, so everyone is anticipating a smooth meeting, but I’m still a little nervous. I actually had to bust out some nice clothes, too, which also involved me having to remember how to tie a tie!

Just got word today–I’ll be interning at Community Recycling and Renewables (CRR) next semester! I’m still not sure exactly what I’ll be doing there, though. They have a lot of programs, and I’m not sure if interns work on all or just one of them. Their biggest areas are: Community Outreach, Technology Vendor Outreach, and Project Implementation. These closely follow the model that that CRR uses, which is to connect neighborhoods/communities with recycling and renewable energy providers, and then assist in implementing the plan that they put together. All of the areas sound interesting to me, so I’m hoping to get a taste of each.

Dr. Lemley also agreed to work with me on a Directed Research project next semester, so I’m excited about that. We met in his office and discussed different possibilities for what the project should be about, and we had a lot of good ideas. I don’t know why, but whenever I speak with Dr. Lemley, I’m never afraid to say what’s on my mind and to get really engaged in the conversation. I guess that’s the sign of a really good teacher.

Throughout the History of Pittsburgh class with him this semester, I’ve been most interested in learning about the different communities in Pittsburgh, and how they’ve changed over the decades. Dr. Lemley suggested picking a neighborhood and tracking different variables (population, employment, etc.) through time. I really liked the idea, and we decided to use the South Side as the model. We’re going to meet a few more times before break to further develop the idea, and we’ll start full-force in January.

The rest of the classes for my last semester at Pitt (wow, that feels so weird to say!) will be just the classes I need to fulfill the rest of my requirements. I also decided to have a little fun and take Aerobic Fitness Boxing, too…I just couldn’t help myself!

Yet again, it’s that joyous time of the semester where I need to start planning what the hell I’ll be doing in the spring.  Unlike like last year, though, I’m actually excited about it.  There’s a couple of internships I’m going to apply for that I heard about at the Office of Entrepreneurial Development (OED), and I’m also pondering asking Dr. Lemley if I can do a directed research project with him.  That way I can knock off my last upper-level class requirement, and Dr. Lemley is also awesome as hell.

It occurs to me now that I never wrote about my trip over to the OED.  The office itself was really nice–it reminded me a lot of the Study Abroad office.  There were books with information, several “Who’s Who” type of directories, and ample sitting areas.  I was a little nervous, so I whipped out my computer and sat on one of the couches before going and talking to the staff.  I noticed a good number of people coming in and out of the office–around 5 in the 10 minutes or so that I was stalling…I mean waiting.  It seemed like a lot of the people were students like me (i.e., liberal arts majors), and they were just checking in with the people who work there (who I overheard being referred to as counselors).

After I rehearsed what I was going to say, I gathered my courage, went up to the front desk, and totally blanked.  I think my exact words were, “Hey, ummmm, my name is Frank, and ummmmmmmm, I was just wonderin’ if, uhhhh, you know…I could…”

The person at the desk just smiled as I was doing my Mario Lemieux impression, and then interrupted and said, “So, this is your first visit here?”  I guess they get that all the time. We talked for a while about my majors, my interests, etc., and then I made an appointment to speak with Ms. Devali, one of the counselors there.

I went to the appointment the next day, and I was a little less nervous, but still unsure of what to say.  The truth is that I really don’t know what I want to do with my life after I graduate, and I don’t feel so great about that.  Most of my friends knew what they wanted to do for a long time, sometimes it seems like they knew since they were born.  I’ve had a lot of ideas, ranging from environmental engineer (whatever that means) to high school history teacher, but nothing ever seemed to stick.  All I really know is that I want to do something I care about, and I want to do it well.  Anyway, that’s what I told Ms. Devali.

She listened as I rambled on about that, and after I was done, she said, “Sounds good, let’s look at some options.” I was expecting her to send me away to think about it some more, so I was pleasantly surprised.  We looked at some different companies and organizations that were offering internships, and a lot of them looked interesting.  There was a really cool community development organization in Homewood, there was a marketing and design firm on the South Side, there were several online magazines…I was amazed by how much there was.  Ms. Devali also said the the OED does not advertise internships that solely involve making copies and doing busy-work, which is something I was afraid of.

The companies that really caught my eye, though, were the ones in the renewable energy field, which ranged from biofuel manufacturers to innovative recycling firms.  One, however, really stuck out: Community Renewables and Recycling (CRR).  This company combined three elements that really interested me–cutting-edge green technology, low-tech implementation, and community outreach.  Building off of Mayor Conway’s original idea to implement renewable energy solutions residentially, their approach is to work with local community groups and grass-roots organizations to develop neighborhood-wide green implementation plans.  They also get down to the actual installation level, which interests me a lot because I love getting my hands dirty!

I applied there as well as some other places as backups, but I’m really banking on CRR, which I should hear from in about a week or so.  After I left Ms. Devali’s office, I realized that going to the OED was one of the biggest single things I’ve done so far to address what I’ll be doing with my life post-graduation.  I’m really glad they were there and so helpful, even for someone as clueless as I am!

I haven’t mentioned anything so far about the mayoral race that’s been going on, but that’s mostly because no one in their right mind is planning on voting against the incumbent, Mayor Conway. Since her victory 8 years ago, the amount of stuff she’s gotten done makes it hard to believe that she’s slept. She was the real driver of the initiative to get the city’s books back in order, she cracked down on improprieties stemming from Pittsburgh’s casino and riverboat gambling operations, she worked with the former SSP members on the council to pass the Family First and Foremost policy (which went WAY beyond the federal Family Medical Leave Act), she pushed for city-run child care centers to provide support for families who couldn’t afford private child care…the list really goes on and on.

Her biggest success, however, has been what she’s done to “green” the city. Pittsburgh has been known as a haven for green building for a long time, but most of that has been focused on large new commercial buildings. It was Mayor Conway’s idea to partner with Duquesne Light and other energy providers to provide incentives for people to remodel their houses for both efficiency and renewable energy. And, believe it or not, Pittsburgh neighborhoods were perfect for it. The plethora of row houses made it easy to install large arrays of solar cells, the many hills became perfect platforms for small, efficient wind turbines. But above all, the people loved it. It also didn’t hurt that most of the breakthroughs in renewable energy products were coming from local firms spun off from local universities.

Dr. Lemley likes to compare the emergence of renewable energy as a big industry to what the steel industry used to be like for Pittsburgh. It encompassed everything–it permeated the air, and you could taste it in the water, and it was people’s livelihoods. Now, you can’t walk down a street without seeing a solar array on a roof or a advertisement for new green products. Unlike steel, however, it’s permeating people’s lives in a much more healthy way. I’m just glad that Mayor Conway had the foresight to see the impact it could make, although she has admitted several times that she’s surprised at how important to the city’s prosperity it has become.