Court Gould, Executive Director, Sustainable Pittsburgh

Q&A with Court Gould

By Carmen J. Lee
Endowments Communications Officer

Sustainable Pittsburgh labored in the trenches for more than a decade to integrate the concept of sustainability into regional planning and development decisions. The challenge now, says Executive Director Court Gould, is to ensure that sustainability remains an established regional priority and doesn’t become a passing fad.

Q: What has been your organization’s biggest triumph of the past year?

A: Among the triumphs has been increasing the number of companies that have appointed sustainability coordinators – 56! – who are participating in our sustainability coordinators network. They are a new breed of employee who works on the application of sustainability principles, policies and procedures throughout the business operation.
Other indicators of success for our organization and the region include the naming of Pittsburgh by the United Nations Environment Program as the North American host city for World Environment Day 2010. Sustainable Pittsburgh is serving as the coordinating agency and fiduciary for the six-week period from the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, April 22, to World Environment Day, June 5. Our organization also facilitated a remarkable regional collaboration to produce a compelling report that portrays inclusion of communities of color in the workforce in a new light: as a regional economic development priority.

Q: What has been the biggest trial?

A: The issue that we have been a mouthpiece for 12 years is suddenly in vogue, and now we have to operate a little differently. Before, we were like a voice in the wilderness. Now sustainability is everywhere, and we have to change our perspective from trying to put the issue on the radar to capitalizing on it being on the radar. It’s a matter of making sure people understand what we mean when we use the word “sustainable.” For example, if you’re not doing social equity, you’re not doing sustainability.

Q: What issue or event has had the most impact – positive or negative – on your organization in the past year?

A: A partnership of entities from all sectors collaborated for over a year to develop and distribute the “Inclusion in the Workforce” report. It has had a tremendous impact on further substantiating the full complement of what sustainability is about. Inclusion is one of our region’s Achilles’ heels. It’s one of the areas in which we have some of the greatest heavy lifting yet to be done.

Q: What new initiatives have been started?

A: We want to foster regional collaborations around World Environment Day so that it is a catalytic series of happenings that will take our region to where it needs to go in the future and won’t just be a one-time event. We’ve finished a comprehensive sustainability assessment of every branch of the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh and will be conducting one in Wilkinsburg. These assessments include a report that provides a range of quantifiable recommendations on how a business, municipality or organization can save money, conserve resources, bolster public relations, and integrate sustainability into management and operations at all levels. We’ve also published a report that makes a case for addressing blight and abandonment on a regional scale and including that as a regional economic development priority.

Q: As head of this organization, what goals do you have for it next year?

A: We want to encourage the regional community to have an active role in the update of the long-range transportation development plan. We collaborate with the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission to engage the public in that planning effort. Other key goals include engaging our Outdoor Recreation Partnership in regional sustainability efforts; increasing the clout of our two networks – the Champions for Sustainability Business Network and the Sustainable Community Development Network – in accelerating the region’s sustainable development policies and practices; and working with other groups to integrate the sustainability agenda into the gubernatorial campaign discussions and platforms. We also want to help in the success of the Power of 32 regional visioning initiative, which is arguably the world’s largest metro regional visioning effort.

Q: So if your organization was a person, what type of personality would you say it had?

A: Our organization is like a “statesmanly” collaborator with an impatient, let’s-get-it-done attitude.

Q: What’s one of the biggest misconceptions about your organization?

A: That we’re only concerned about the City of Pittsburgh, that we’re only “green.”
So people think “Oh, Sustainable Pittsburgh is about green environmentalism and their name, ‘Pittsburgh.’” We were intentional about our name: Sustainability is here to stay and so is the Pittsburgh region. But we have a comprehensive view of sustainability, which foremost is about fostering a learning region.

Q: Can you share a short story about an incident or event that illustrates the impact you believe your organization is having on your local community or the region?

A: Because of the work of Sustainable Pittsburgh and its partners, sustainability and smart growth have been incorporated into a final, comprehensive transportation and development plan for the region as well as into a comprehensive land use and development plan for Allegheny County. Both were extensive public engagement processes, and our organization and partners were very active in bringing award-level attention to our region for inking plans that are helping to intensify development in existing communities and targeted corridors, revitalize existing neighborhoods, conserve open space and natural resources, and provide increased access to public services and transportation. All together, these efforts are reducing our region’s carbon footprint and narrowing the disparities gap.

Q: Could you share a short story about an individual’s experience that captures what your organization is meant to be to the community?

A: I was recently on the phone with the McKees Rocks Community Development Corp. executive director who was recounting all of the exciting momentum occurring in his community. At some point in the conversation, he paused and said, “You know, it was that community event Sustainable Pittsburgh organized a couple years ago that was the turning point for all of this.” We basically put on a walkabout through the community for developers and investors, and we hosted a lunch on a bus tour to show all the assets in this community, which has lots of large-scale, brownfield riverfront properties and main-street vacant store fronts. We also helped to create collaborations with other neighboring communities. He was talking about the new investment in the community both in terms of grant opportunities and business revitalization. For me, that was highly rewarding.