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The Allegheny County Park Rangers were very excited to have Kirsi Jansa present a screening of her Sustainability Pioneers documentary. Our staff presents public programming which focuses on environmental science, biology, ecology, and natural resource conservation and these documentaries gave them a great connection to add to their programming about the issues revolving around climate change. It was refreshing to see a documentary which covered the stories of how individuals and governments are working together to help make positive change for our environment without over emphasizing the “doom and gloom” which a lot of presentations on this topic can contain. My staff came out of this presentation with a very positive outlook on what is being done to improve current environmental conditions and it provided a realistic avenue for them to think about what they can do to get involved in both big and small ways. I would recommend this as a great exercise for expanding one’s knowledge on the subject, in a format that provides information in a welcoming environment, and allows for engaging conversation open to everyone, no matter their view point on the subject matter.

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Braden Meiter Allegheny County Parks Lead Supervisory Park Ranger

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Kirsi Jansa and Sustainability Pioneers have done something very rare with the debate between two conflicting sides of climate change and global warming. She has found common ground. It’s not easy to do this with heated debate. She has done it with ideas and explanations of how to make this planet more reliant on renewable energy. Her ideas reach common ground and help unite protesters on both sides of the fence. Climate change is THE most serious and important issue we are dealing with in my opinion. I am thrilled to know Kirsi is effecting positive change for the planet with her Sustainabilithy Pioneers work.

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SCOTT GOLDSMITH Photographer

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The Sustainability Pioneers work showcases what’s going right – and wrong – and how to fix it — in our region. Compelling storytelling from the individuals affected by opportunities like new solar panels or challenges like air quality and its effect on asthma resonates far more than any lecture we can deliver. It’s a powerful weapon in the arsenal for change, and we’re excited to have tools like this available to CCI as we engage people in the Grassroots Green Homes project and other community outreach projects.

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JEANEEN ZAPPA Executive Director Conservation Consultants

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“Where Kirsi Jansa excels, and a few of her peers in the movement occasionally falter, is in journalistic clarity. View any episode of Sustainability Pioneers and you will appreciate that Jansa and her team are patient. They do their homework. They isolate the important questions, they ask them, and then they LISTEN to the answers. It is this phenomenon of listening “with” the audience — to the scientists, to the activists, to the authorities, and to the entrepreneurs — that places this series firmly into the category of legitimate interpretive journalism. Yes, interpretive: not, partisan, not special-interest, not liberal, not even political, and certainly not anti energy business. This director’s style is solid, investigative, unbiased storytelling, and in this series she introduces the audience to a variety of our neighbors and friends who just happen to be two steps ahead of the rest of us in understanding the urgency of — and who are moving more quickly forward with — the transition from fossil fuel dependency to the much healthier, more sustainable, and far less costly options represented by smarter energy sources. Jansa’s common sense questions and matter-of-fact narration prompt the viewer to wonder how anyone could still be concerned that focusing on water, wind, soil, and sunlight represents a controversial new idea, or why we aren’t making immediate, large-scale investments in safer, transformative energy sources.”

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Tim Hudson, Ph.D. Professor of Journalism Point Park University, Pittsburgh, PA

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“What makes Sustainability Pioneers so compelling is that it has a unifying effect rather than a splintering effect.  So often conversations about the health of the environment are dramatically polarized by economical, geographical or social issues, and because of that it is difficult to get to the heart of the matter.  Kirsi has found a way of presenting the environmental issues so that we all can be concerned and we all can be a part of the solution.  This is positive progress.”

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BROOKE SMOKELIN Environmental Educator 

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