CEOs aim for Pittsburgh to become a sustainability leader
New group hopes for 1,000 members
Chief executives of 17 Pittsburgh-area companies engaged in a wide range of industries — from chemicals producers Covestro and Lanxess to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Eat’n Park Hospitality Group — have launched an initiative to promote and collaborate on sustainable practices they say will improve their corporate bottom lines and attract more businesses to the region.
The initiative, CEOs for Sustainability, has been in the works for abouta year and was formally introduced Tuesday at a briefing for local business leaders at the Fairmont Pittsburgh Hotels, Downtown.
The effort “is in step with Pittsburgh’s numerous renaissances,” said Court Gould, executive director Pittsburgh,of the nonprofitwhich is Sustainable facilitating the initiative.
The aim, he said, “is to heighten awareness that sustainable business practices are a must thing to do, not just a nice thing to do.”
Spearheaded by Jerry MacCleary, president of Germanybased Covestro’s North American region, and Ron Gdovic, founder and chief executive of WindStax, a Plum-based maker of wind energy power systems, the idea grew out of a relationship that those executives forged last year when their companies collaborated on a lighting project for the city’s Rachel Carson Bridge. They invited other executives to share best practices and policies on sustainability issues, which include reducing energy consumption and carbon footprint, recycling materials, using locally sourced products and suppliers, promoting health and well being among employees, and fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce.
They hope to eventually grow the group to 1,000 executives.
The concept of achieving sustainability has become so critical to doing business effectively, said Mr. MacCleary, that investors seek out company goals in annual
sustainability reports or on corporate websites as they analyze whether to commit money.
Among the S&P 500 companies, 82 percent issued corporate sustainability reports last year.
“So it does have a business case,” Mr. MacCleary said.
Asked how sustainable environmental practices would be impacted by President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement and the president’s claim that he was elected to represent the city of Pittsburgh, not Paris, Mr. MacCleary scoffed.
“That was not received well by our company,” he said. “Government is not going to lead this. We are. If we make Pittsburgh sustainable, it will attract companies and employees.”
The Pittsburgh initiative includes a website, ceosforsustainability.org, where businesses can access tools and resources to implement and track sustainable practices.
The group expects to issue progress reports as more companies join and work toward achieving sustainable goals.
Among the 17 executives signed on, 87 percent said their companies have policies to ensure an inclusive workplace; 73 percent track energy usage with the aim of conserving it; and 60 percent assess the products they make for healthand safety impacts.
At Tuesday’s event, the chief executives of Eat’n Park, the restaurant chain based in Homestead, and Pitt-Ohio, a Strip Districtbased trucking and transportation company, delivered case studies on how sustainable practices have benefited their businesses.
Eat’n Park, for instance, in the early 2000s developed a farm sourcing program to purchase dairy, meat, produce and other goods from regional farms and facilities.
Among Pitt-Ohio’s sustainable practices to reduce carbon emissions from its truck fleet is a software program, implemented in 2002, that tracks how efficiently drivers operate the vehicles. It also added trucks that run on alternative fuels and is researching how to power trucks using locally generated wind and solar power.
Its most visible example of sustainability, according to the company, is a terminal building in Harmar designed to meet LEED standards with features such as a roof that reflects solar heat and interior geothermal heating and cooling. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.