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  Heinz finances grassroots projects By Don Hopey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer -- September 6, 1998
OSTRAVA, Czech Republic -- A smiling Petr Vanek, the mayor's chief of staff, came dancing down a dozen steps at City Hall to pump the right hand of a distinguished looking man he greeted as the Slovenian Ambassador. In mid-shake Vanek realized his mistake. His smile widened. "Bill, how are you?" Vanek asked as his handshake became more vigorous and he greeted William Lafe, coordinator of the Central European Linkage Program. Although its name makes it sound like a kielbasa menu, the program, supported by the Pittsburgh-based Howard Heinz Endowment and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, finances fledgling environmental programs in the Czech and Slovak republics and Poland. Vanek hadn't seen Lafe, who lives in Pittsburgh, for eight months so his confusion was forgiven. But his reaction once he realized whose hand he was holding was a measure of the respect and appreciation the two-year-old program has won. Since June 1996, it has supported:
"No one knew if we could work a collaboration in central Europe," Lafe said. "If there would be interest there, if we could promote Pittsburgh and open up other opportunities for nonprofits, consultants, universities and businesses." The 400 environmental service firms in the Pittsburgh area are well positioned to take advantage of opportunities the program creates, said Michael Roy, manager of international programs for Air & Waste Management Association, the administrator for the Heinz program grant. "We're trying to open the door for a Pittsburgh presence in central Europe." Three industrial cities - Ostrava, Katowice and Kosice - were selected by Lafe as focus areas. All are medium-sized urban centers of heavy industry, similar to Pittsburgh. All face environmental issues - including air and water pollution and industrial "brownfield" cleanup and reuse - similar to those Pittsburgh has tackled. "I walked through the mill sites in Ostrava yesterday and felt I could just as easily have been in Homestead," said Andrew McElwaine, environmental program manager for the Heinz endowment. To share experiences and come up with a model brownfield redevelopment strategy, the endowment sponsored a four-day workshop in Ostrava in June involving academics, government planners and developers from Pittsburgh and Ostrava. They focused on a specific industrial site, the 160-year-old Vitkovice steel works, which will close at the end of 1998. "We want to minimize the time a site sits idle, because that can become an economic, environmental and social burden for the community," said Deborah Lange, executive director of The Brownfields Center at Carnegie Mellon. Pittsburgh's experience with home weatherization also informs the linkage program's "Nice Place to Live" efforts in Poland and the Czech Republic. "It will work there, but it will be slower than here," said Ann Gerace, executive director of Conservation Consultants Inc., whose Green Neighborhood Program in Carrick, Lawrenceville and Knoxville is the model for the central European programs. The program reduced utility costs by about 38 percent per house in Pittsburgh. "In Czechoslovakia, if the state didn't do it for you, it wasn't done," Gerace said. "Getting people there to take responsibility is a new concept."
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Home weatherization and energy
conservation in Ostrava and Marklowice, near Katowice, Poland, working with South
Side-based Conservation Consultants Inc.
