The Pitt Green Spotlight is a monthly series highlighting Pitt’s Green Offices & Labs! Each post highlights Pitt Green Offices and/or Labs, sharing their experiences implementing sustainable practices, tips and tricks, lessons learned, and opportunities for more sustainable work at Pitt.
We hope these Pitt Green Offices & Labs will inspire you to try out new sustainable practices in your own workspace! Want to be included in our next highlight? Contact us.
Pitt Green Lab Spotlight
Sustainable Design Labs, Swanson School of Engineering, Benedum Hall
Pitt Green Lab Team (left to right): Kayla Trahey, Suraya Rahim, Aiden Landis, Hassan Nawaz, Dr. Gregg Kotchey, Dr. David Sanchez, PI.
Green Lab since August 2022.
What does your lab study? What kind of space, equipment, and/or materials do you work with?
As environmental engineers, we focus on tracking and treating legacy and emerging contaminants of concern. These can be pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, plasticizers, herbicides, and other chemicals that make it into our soil and water.
Our research group, Sustainable Design Labs focuses on fusing analytical chemistry, sustainability design principles and novel treatment technologies to address Water and Sustainability grand challenges. Current thrusts focus on metal organic frameworks for PFAS, bioelectrochemical degradation, and nanobubble precipitation.
Why did become a Pitt Green Lab? What inspired you to look into ways to make your lab more sustainable?
Going through the Pitt Green Lab process allowed us to strategically ask our lab, “Are there better ways to do our work?,” which is a fundamental question to any organization and especially research. We know that the efficacy and efficiency gains for our lab operations will allow us to do more as a lab… more importantly it’s invited new paradigms to consider in our approaches.
Are there any simple changes or sustainability hacks you’d recommend other labs make to be more sustainable?
The 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse Recycle) continue to pay dividends as hacks for the sustainability-minded lab.
Anything else you’d like to share regarding sustainability in the lab or on campus?
The concepts of benign by design, biomimicry, and sustainable design, are different facets of the same ethos, incorporating the best of nature. We recognize that we are from that process in our lab, but there’s hope in every positive step toward it.
Pitt Green Office Spotlight:
Pitt Eats – Main Office
Pitt Green Office Team (not all pictured): Nick Pagano, Sr., Marketing Director; Jose Perez Vela, Sustainability Director; Quincey Kilbride, Sustainability Intern; Keanna Marcelo, Sustainability Intern.
Green Office since December 2021
Why did you want to become a Pitt Green Office? What inspired you to look into ways to make your office more sustainable?
Sustainability is all-encompassing and can be applied to everything we do, including our office practices. Becoming a Pitt Green Office helps our team understand how individuals play a crucial role in sustainable living. Establishing green procedures in the office has proven to translate into our associates’ lives beyond the office and back at home.
Are there any sustainability “hacks” or simple changes you’d recommend other offices like yours make to be more sustainable?
Encourage sustainable travel to conferences and meetings – consider carbon offset programs with air travel and mass transit networks when possible. Unless necessary, avoid meeting in person and cut travel time by adopting virtual technology to promote efficiency and productivity.
What are some opportunities you see to be more sustainable in your office?
Adopt K-cup recycling in our offices, encourage our associates to adopt walking meetings, and influence associates to eat away from their offices to enjoy a natural environment when possible.
Anything else you’d like to share regarding sustainability in the office or on campus?
Food insecurity challenges individuals inconspicuously, often going unnoticed and affecting college students adopting to new living conditions. Pitt Eats looks to provide free nutritious meals, non-perishable food items, and fresh produce to food insecure individuals at the University of Pittsburgh. The program was piloted in Spring 2023; starting in Fall 2023 semester, Pitt Eats is expanding this initiative by installing temperature-controlled food lockers to expand student access to safe, healthy food. In partnership with student group Food Recovery Heroes and the Pitt Pantry, Pitt Eats plans to prepare over 100 meals weekly for distribution to food insecure individuals at Pitt.