By SHANNON O. WELLS
It’s been a rather long journey since the Pitt Sustainability Challenge was first conceived in 2019. Following months of deliberation, however, a committee has narrowed the challenge participants down to five finalists.
The entity with a winning plan for an “integrated, impactful, durable and feasible solution” to move Pitt toward its goal of carbon neutrality by 2037 — the 250th anniversary of the University’s founding — will receive $300,000.
The winner of the challenge will play an integral role in fulfilling Sustainability Plan goals and initiatives based on balancing “equity, environment and economics to ensure current and future generations can thrive across disciplines, domains and scales,” Pitt Sustainability said.
Aurora Sharrard, Pitt’s Sustainability director, said the challenge sparked the imagination of a wide range of constituents from Pitt and the wider community it serves.
“We’re thrilled at how the Pitt Sustainability Challenge has actively engaged the creative thinking of both the Pitt community and public,” she said. “The challenge supports sustainability as a core value of the Plan for Pitt and the 2018 Pitt Sustainability Plan’s goal to ensure our community has ways to help advance ideas for positive impact.”
Having carbon neutrality as the focus of the first Pitt Sustainability Challenge, she added, “not only demonstrates the University’s commitment to reaching that achievement for itself, but also in response to our global climate emergency while advancing our academic mission, pursuing equitable outcomes and helping create economic resilience for Pitt and our communities.”
It was in the pre-pandemic climate of 2019 when the Office of Sustainability and Mascaro Center for Sustainability started conceptualizing the Pitt Sustainability Challenge. A partnership with a University-wide planning team was established to build a Pitt Sustainability Plan focused on creating opportunities for the community and public to creatively engage in Pitt Sustainability.
“We were finalizing details in 2020 when the pandemic put it on hold for a couple of years,” Sharrard recalled, “which also gave us an opportunity to validate our plans — and focus them on carbon neutrality.”
Among the many efforts under the Pitt Sustainability Plan and beyond are initiatives balancing equity, environment and economics to ensure current and future generations can thrive across disciplines, domains and scales, she noted. “The winner of the challenge will play a key part in this goal.”
Sharrard said applicants, from inside and outside of the University, had to submit a written application and 90-second video detailing their solution. The proposals were evaluated through a rubric by a panel of external judges.
A selection committee of three internal decision-makers (still being finalized) will select the $300,000 awardee of the Pitt Sustainability Challenge following their pitches from 9 a.m. to noon Sept. 14 at the Petersen Events Center. Members of the Pitt community and general public are invited to hear the five finalists publicly pitch their solutions. Registration for the event is requested as space is limited.
Winning proposal will be implemented within a two-year period. Pitt Sustainability also will debrief the other finalists and consider all the proposed ideas for potential advancement.
Although the pitch event for finalists won’t be until the fall 2023 semester is underway, Sharrard and her colleagues are already excited about hearing the participants describe their plans in detail.
“We’re excited to present a diverse platform of proposed solutions — and hope it will entice Pitt, our region and others to think just as creatively about how to combat climate change and other grand challenges of our time,” she said. “Once a winner is selected, we will be moving them into implementation as quickly as possible.”
Sharrard said while there are no current plans for a follow-up Sustainability Challenge, future contests are not beyond the realm of possibility.
“We’re definitely not ruling out a future Pitt Sustainability Challenge focused on a different or similar topic, but are first very excited to see this first challenge through to implementation,” she said.
Finalists’ proposals
"Chill Up" Challenge by Pitt Green Labs
Because they need to freeze specimens, tissues and things like vaccines, research labs can be three to six times more energy intensive than an average commercial building. The “Chill Up” Challenge proposal would offer researchers on all campuses freezer upgrade rebates and incentives to share freezers, as well as reduce barriers to “chilling up” with educational efforts.
Chill Up also wants to increase engagement with the Pitt Green Labs program, which provides recommendations and resources to help Pitt laboratories incorporate sustainability best practices. So far, only 22 labs have participated in the Pitt Green Lab program out of more than 2,000 across the University.
CO2IReduce by University of Pittsburgh
The CO2IReduce project would collect data and create a personalized dashboard relevant to any student, faculty or staff member on the Pittsburgh campus to demonstrate how they can use space efficiently and reduce their carbon footprint. A key goal of the project is to provide scalable solutions to make even the least energy-efficient buildings more efficient, especially when compared with new buildings or vast renovations.
Anaerobic Digestion Technology by Ecotone Renewables
Ecotone Renewables’ Anaerobic Digestion Technology looks to divert carbon emissions by converting local food waste into nutrient-dense, ready-to-use fertilizer. Excessive food waste and dying soils are having a profoundly negative global impact, notably in creating extreme atmospheric carbon levels. Food waste also expands landfills, leads to less healthy plant life and weakens the soil microbiome.
ZEUS anaerobic digesters on or near Pitt campuses would address these issues by processing 10 tons of food waste and diverting 120 tons of CO2 emissions per system per year, aiding in Pitt’s mission to achieve carbon neutrality by 2037. This waste would then be converted into 2,600 gallons of Soil Sauce, a ready-to-use, ultra-clean, nutrient-microbial-rich fertilizer.
Panther Tracks by S&B USA Construction
In fiscal year 2019, commuter travel represented 16.4 percent of Pitt’s greenhouse gas emissions inventory. Due to Pitt’s size, geographic pull and relative shortage of nearby affordable housing, many community members rely on personal vehicles to get to campus.
S&B USA Construction aims to facilitate regional transportation decarbonization and increase the University’s electric vehicle charging and eMobility infrastructure. They plan to leverage the physical places that Pitt controls, such as garages, lots and adjacent buildings across campuses, to support the transition of single occupancy vehicles, shuttles, shared-use vehicles and micromobility to zero emissions.
Pitt–Johnstown Geothermal Tunnels Feasibility Study
Pitt–Johnstown has an unseen resource under the campus grounds — mining tunnels that can provide sustainable geothermal energy. This year, Pitt-Johnstown’s electricity consumption is trending 60 to 70 percent above budget allocations. A sustainable solution is needed, and this project would also result in savings via tax credits. The team will complete a feasibility study and project management plan to use the existing tunnels as a geothermal heating and cooling source; the solution will tie together campuswide systems more effectively. The study will be led by partners at Apex Companies and H.F. Lenz, who both hire Pitt alumni.
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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