• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Sustainable Pittsburgh

Sustainable Pittsburgh

  • About Us
      • Team
      • History
      • Board of Directors
      • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
      • Sponsors & Supporters
  • Search Icon
  • Priorities & Progress
  • Resources & News
  • Take Action
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
  • Priorities & Progress
      • Carbon Reduction
      • Social Equity
      • Past Initiatives
  • Resources & News
      • Why Sustainability?
      • Decarb Digest
      • Blog
      • Press Coverage
      • Webinars
      • Toolkits & Case Studies
      • Newsletters
      • Reports
  • Take Action
      • How to Get Started
      • Recognition Programs
      • Networks
      • Events
  • Resources & News
  • Why Sustainability?
  • Decarb Digest
  • Blog
  • Press Coverage
  • Webinars
  • Toolkits & Case Studies
  • Newsletters
  • Reports
Home > Resources & News > Blog

Straight Talk: No Turning Back on Sustainability

March 31, 2017 by Ginette Walker Vinski

It’s been a rough week for the environment.  However following the money offers reason for optimism.  Congress, not the President, holds the purse strings and is quite a bit more tuned to public sentiment.  Not falling on deaf ears is the rising chorus of the public and marketplace with their message that the sustainability genie is out of the bottle and no presidential orders are going to put it back.  Even Exxon is calling on the White House to not retreat from the Paris Climate Agreement.  Seventy-five U.S. mayors, including Mayor Peduto, are refusing to comply and have affirmed their commitments to taking every action possible to achieve the principles and goals of the Paris Agreement.  The largest privately held coalminer in the U.S., Murray Energy, has acknowledged mining jobs are not coming back despite executive orders to squash the Clean Power Plan.  While cheap natural gas is depressing demand for other fossil fuels, renewables are beating all in the contest for investment and proven job creation.  And that’s just the beginning; researchers in Japan quietly just set a new record for the efficiency of mass-produced solar panels, powering the way to further acceleration of the clean energy future.  The real story is that while Washington is in denial, the markets and business imperative are fueling sustainable development.

Sustainable Pittsburgh

307 Fourth Avenue, Suite 700
Pittsburgh, PA 15222 USA

412-258-6642 (phone)
info@sustainablepittsburgh.org


  • Priorities & Progress
    • Carbon Reduction
    • Social Equity
    • Past Initiatives
      • Allegheny Eats
      • Choose Local
      • Plastics Collaborative
      • Straw Forward
  • Resources & News
    • Why Sustainability?
    • Blog
    • Press Coverage
    • Webinars
    • Toolkits & Case Studies
    • Reports
  • Take Action
    • How to Get Started
    • Recognition Programs
      • FAQs
      • Restaurants
      • Shops
      • Workplaces
      • Business & Organization Directory
      • Communities
      • Sprints
      • Program Login
    • Networks
      • CEOs for Sustainability
      • DISCOVER
      • Sustainable Community Development Network (SCDN)
      • Clean Energy Workforce Roundtable
    • Events
      • Events Calendar
      • 2024 CEOs for Sustainability C-Suite Summit
      • 25th Anniversary Celebration
  • About Us
    • Team
    • History
    • Board of Directors
    • Careers
  • Contact Us
    • Donate
    • Program Login
    • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Sustainable Pittsburgh. All rights reserved.