Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 49.34
Liaison John Stolz
Submission Date March 5, 2021

STARS v2.2

Duquesne University
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Gabriella Zuccolotto
Graduate Assistant
Center for Environmental Research & Education (CERE)
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability :
Uptown Partners of Pittsburgh - EcoInnovation District

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? :
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe?:
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership?:
Sustainability-focused

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? :
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability:

Duquesne University partners with Uptown Partners of Pittsburgh (UP), a non-profit organization of residents, institutions, business owners and other concerned stakeholders to improve community quality of life — and to collaboratively create a vision and pathway for Uptown’s much-needed revitalization.

UP works to ensure the development of a clean, safe, green, and equitable neighborhood; rebuilds a mixed-income population by reclaiming vacant, blighted properties and encouraging new residential development; attracts new neighborhood retail and commercial business, while supporting existing business owners; fosters green, quality design in all development projects; and creates a healthy environment where the arts flourish and are integrated into the urban landscape.

Today Uptown Partners is working with the City of Pittsburgh, our community and institutions, Port Authority of Allegheny County, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, Green Building Alliance, Oakland Planning & Development Corp., and other interested stakeholders in a unique public/private planning initiative, embodied in the Uptown/West Oakland EcoInnovation District plan (also referred to as the Uptown EcoInnovation District). This creates a first-ever City model, and among only a few nationally, that deploys best practices for a neighborhood to become “resilient, vibrant, resource efficient, and just.”

http://www.uptownpartners.org/


Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (2nd partnership):
Pittsburgh 2030 District Challenge

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (2nd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (2nd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (2nd partnership):
Sustainability-focused

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? (2nd partnership):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (2nd partnership):

Duquesne University is also part of Pittsburgh's 2030 District Challenge, which is a partnership between building owners, facility managers, community partners, and local resource partners who are taking on aggressive reduction targets. The Pittsburgh district is a local initiative of the Green Building Alliance, which aims to reduce energy use, water consumption, and transportation emissions 50% by 2030. The Pittsburgh District also aims to improve indoor air quality and were the first district in the network to collect and analyze indoor air quality data. By establishing relationships with building owners and managers and providing peer-to-peer learning and technical trainings opportunities, the Pittsburgh District is ranked at the top of the 2030 Challenge Network, with 86.3 million square feet committed and $154.5M saved in energy and water costs since 2012.

https://www.2030districts.org/pittsburgh


Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (3rd partnership):
3 Rivers Quest

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (3rd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (3rd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership? (3rd partnership):
Sustainability-focused

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? (3rd partnership):
Not Sure

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (3rd partnership):

3 Rivers QUEST (Quality Useful Environmental Study Teams) is a comprehensive water quality monitoring and reporting program, sampling all three of Pittsburgh's rivers, their 3 Rivers Quest Siteheadwaters, and their tributaries. The Program was started by the West Virginia Water Research Institute at West Virginia University in 2009 sampling the Monongahela and has since expanded. Sampling has taken place over the past few years, with Duquesne joining the program in 2013. There are several groups involved in data collection:

Duquesne University sampling the Lower Allegheny River
Iron Furnace Chapter of Trout Unlimited sampling on the Upper Allegheny
West Virginia University sampling the Monongahela River
Wheeling Jesuit University sampling the Upper Ohio River

As the most important natural resources in Pittsburgh, the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers are great sources of drinking water. The Allegheny alone supplies water to more than one million people, and yet its use is threatened by our economic and industrial activities. Clean water is essential for life and it is important that we make efforts to monitor and improve the quality of the water upon which both people and the environment are reliant.

This program is important because, although water quality testing has been conducted in these river basins, no reporting program has been establish that allows all data to be available to create a baseline of the water quality. This baseline will allow for future comparison of water quality. Visit their website for more details: www.3riversquest.org. This project would not be possible without the generous support from its Sponsor, the Colcom Foundation.

https://www.duq.edu/academics/schools/natural-and-environmental-sciences/academic-programs/environmental-science-and-management/3-rivers-quest


A brief description of the institution’s other community partnerships to advance sustainability:

Duquense University partners with a number of local Rotary Clubs to gain a holistic and ethical understanding of the water crisis. Students collaborate with faculty and staff and with the Olkokola community in northern Tanzania in its effort to gain better access to clean water, while teaching students how to be agents of positive change in our world.

The Office of Transformational Learning is a campus portal for developing community engagement and live projects with NGO's City Governments, SMEs, and corporations. The OTL provides year-round live consulting projects involving sustainability and have completed almost 200 projects. https://www.duq.edu/academics/schools/business/graduate/mba-programs/mba-sustainable-business-practices/office-of-transformational-learning


Website URL where information about the institution’s community partnerships to advance sustainability is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
---

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.