Pittsburgh is working to shed its image as a polluted industrial city, and Pitt’s School of… Pittsburgh is working to shed its image as a polluted industrial city, and Pitt’s School of Law is doing its part to help.

On Monday, the Pitt School of Law’s Innovation Practice Institute and the Pittsburgh Journal of Environmental and Public Health Law hosted a forum entitled “Building Sustainable Neighborhoods: Powering Sustainable Development in Allegheny County” at the Phipps Conservatory. The conference brought together legislators, attorneys, businesspeople and academic scholars to discuss the region’s capability to pave the way for alternative energy sources across the country.

Justine Kasznica, executive director of the IPI, said opening a dialog is the first step in continuing Pittsburgh’s green revolution.

“Creating forums like this, [which bring together] individuals who don’t often have the opportunity to talk to one another, is the number one recipe for allowing this kind of innovation and reimagination of the city,” Kasznica said. We hope that the conversations that are sparked here will continue long beyond this conference.”

The organizers believe southwestern Pennsylvania could prove to be a safe haven for environmentally friendly policy, innovation and development.

“[Pittsburgh has] been called the new energy capital of the nation,” Kasznica said. “We really want to work to become that model of sustainable energy development and economic growth for [not just] our nation, but for the world.”

The conference ran from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and included panel discussions on local energy initiatives, the sustainability of natural gas development, university research, green buildings and growing the green economy both in terms of financial development and social enterprise.

The day began with a keynote address from U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pittsburgh.

The congressman said he has been working to introduce environmentally friendly policies in the region for years. He pointed to his efforts to reduce dependence on foreign oil, reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and “revitalize our nation’s cities by promoting brownfields clean-up, Downtown redevelopment, public transit, sustainable development and green jobs.”

“I believe that green technology, and especially green energy technology like renewables and alternative energy supplies, will drive the global economy in the coming decades the way that steam power, electricity, automobiles and computers have done in past eras,” he said.

Kasznica stressed that both the conference and environmental policy in general are nonpartisan.

“We’re not here to inspect the positives or the negatives of particular acts,” she said.

“The particular acts are framed to look positive or negative by whoever spins them. What we are talking about is the fundamental ideas and beliefs underwriting such legislation, and we want those ideas to shine through.”

Tara Tighe, editor-in-chief of the Pittsburgh Journal of Environmental and Public Health Law, agreed.

“Everyone has a stake in making sure our region is strong economically and grows. We want to see that unemployment rate go down as much as possible. It’s not a political thing at all, there’s no sides to this. Everyone should be invested in making our economy stronger,” she said.

Pittsburgh is often perceived as a dirty city that has become greener in recent years, but Kasznica said she sees things differently. It’s not that Pittsburgh changed from dirty to clean, but that innovation has always been a big part of Pittsburgh. In the past, that meant being on the cutting edge of the steel industry. Today, it means leading the way toward alternative energy sources, she said.

“I very much think that innovation is built into our rich history. I believe that [Pittsburgh] went through the tragic loss of the steel industry and was faced, as many of these industrial cities were faced, with, ‘What’s our next step? What do we do now?’ And to me it’s more of a rebirth in innovation,” she said.