Pittsburgh's Convention Center Follows Through On Green Promise

Scott Detrow

Recent Stories

Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

November 14, 2011 | 1:02 PM

Getty Images

Pittsburgh's David L. Lawrence Convention Center hosted the G20 in 2009

Just how green is Pittsburgh’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center?
Pretty green, according to a new energy audit. The Post-Gazette has more:

Energy use has been 16 percent lower than originally expected and includes a reduction of 333,000 kilowatt hours per year as a result of the natural ventilation system, she said.
Because of the use of natural light in the design, the lighting system has less work to do and accounts for 26 percent of energy use.
The water audit revealed that treatment and recycling of toilet wastewater back into toilet use reduces demand for fresh water in the building by 80 percent.
“Pretty remarkable,” said Alan Traugott, a principal at CJL Engineering.
The center is recycling half of its other water use, he said.
Thirty-eight percent of revenues since 2006 have come from green-specific events and brought $144 million in direct spending to the region. Further, almost one fourth of the convention market wants green venues, a demand that’s up by 4.5 percent each year.