CMU to present environmental innovations to top journalists

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s environmental reporter Sandy Bauers is not used to venturing very far to the west. With Philadelphia’s award-winning sustainability efforts and a vibrant alternative energy sector sprouting in the outlying counties, Bauers has had no shortage of material right on her home turf. But the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University has drawn the Philly press across the Commonwealth this week as they unveil a series of innovations and research studies to a national panel of journalists.

Bauers will join a group of journalists from all over the country as CMU celebrates the seventh annual Steinbrenner Institute Environmental Media Fellowship, which started on Wednesday and runs through Friday. Their interviews span everything from green design and geoengineering, to water quality and alternative energy issues. The journalists will also visit former brownfield sites, participate in a boat cruise highlighting Pittsburgh’s riverfront transformation and meet participants of the 2010 Water Matters: Global Water Conference.

“The fellowship enables leading environmental science, technology and policy journalists to broaden and deepen their knowledge of environmental issues and provides a unique opportunity for Carnegie Mellon faculty to share their research findings with, and learn from an outstanding group of professional communicators,” says Steinbrenner Institute faculty director David A. Dzombak.

With the Water Matters conference in town, the event will focus on water and energy and will be moderated by writers and educators alike. As Pittsburgh has worked tirelessly to draw new environmental projects to their city, this event will allow journalists to hear about new innovations and research projects straight from the researchers themselves and pave the way for news stories in the future.

“Carnegie Mellon faculty have been extremely cooperative about sharing research and broad knowledge of key environmental issues with the visiting media,” said Deborah A. Lange, executive director of the Steinbrenner Institute and the Western Pennsylvania Brownfields Center. “We want the media to know that they can depend on Carnegie Mellon as a resource for a broad range of stories and expertise.”

Source: Chriss Swaney, Carnegie Mellon University
Writer: John Steele