Pittsburgh: Cleaning and greening its image Video

Pittsburgh: Cleaning and greening its image Video Transcript

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>> Hey there, I'm Kara Tsuboi, CNET News.com. When you think of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, you probably think of an old Steel City: Lots of industry, manufacturing, pollution, dirtiness. Well, not anymore. It is totally scrubbing up its image clean and it's starting with this building, right here, the Convention Center. ^M00:00:21 [ Music ] ^M00:00:25

>> For starters, it's gold-LEED certified, the second highest ranking for green buildings with environmentally sustainable construction.

>> There's a lot of good things going on here and green is important.

>> That's Paul O'Connell, the center's Director of Operations and my tour guide of the facility.

>> All the glass in a natural daylight was one of the main energy saving features in the building that we use natural daylight to light instead of using the amount of light that we have to provide. It does a fairly good job of keeping you know, basically the heat in and the cool out.

>> We enter Exhibit Hall A, a soaring 140,000 square foot space that relies on special vents in convection to cool it.

>> We're miles ahead of where other are even today and we're 5 years old.

>> Also, the lamps have photocells built in to regulate the lights and ultimately cut down on electricity.

>> When there's a show running, when the sun comes out, the photocells read and the lights go off and on as necessary. But when a big cloud comes over, like a thundercloud, it will literally turn the lights on.

>> Big Trade Shows can create a lot of waste. That's why Paul has invested in this baler to break down cardboard.

>> We actually paid for the cardboard. It doesn't cost me anything to get rid of it and we get paid based upon spot market pricing.

>> In addition, the center also compost plant matter, like sod from the dog show and eventually 60 to 80 tons of food.

>> The only thing that now isn't compostable in this building is potato chip bags and candy wrappers.

>> When it comes to food, the dining services crew uses the roof planter boxes for its organic garden. You certainly don't find that touch to just every convention center.

>> Two years ago, they took three of them and they grew their parsley and they grew basil, they grew thyme and they grew watermelons just for the heck of it.

>> Without a doubt, the stinkiest part of the tour was visiting the water reclamation plant.

>> All the waste water is in double-filtered through a reverse osmosis membrane system, okay, which gets about 99% of the waste and the solids out of there.

>> After more filtration and special treatment, you get up to 30,000 gallons of crystal clear water in each batch.

>> Then that's all of our flush water. All the urinals and all the toilets in the building are 100% reclaimed water.

>> Not content to sit still, Paul and his staff continue to explore more sustainable options for the building like adding potable [inaudible], a green roof and hydroponics garden.

>> The motivation I think is the investment of the future. We want everybody to do this. We want the industry to do it. Let's do it right because someday it's not gonna be there.

>> I'm Kara Tsuboi, CNET News.com. ^M00:02:58 [ Music ]