The Top 11 Reasons Pittsburgh Leads:

#1 The Economist Magazine (June 2009) ranked Pittsburgh as #1 Most Livable City in the United States

#2 Foreign Direct Investment Magazine named Pittsburgh one of the Top Ten Major Cities of the Future.

#3 President Obama selected Pittsburgh to host the G-20 Summit September 24-25, 2009, because Pittsburgh symbolizes economic renewal and has transformed itself into an economy that embraces new and green technologies.

#4 Pittsburgh is recognized worldwide as a leading center of high technology and life sciences. The Pittsburgh Technology Council has 1,400 member firms.

#5 Leading industries include energy, software engineering, computer science and information technology, healthcare delivery, advanced manufacturing, medical device technology, robotics, and green innovation.

#6 Pittsburgh’s great research universities include Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.

#7 The Allegheny Conference on Community Development, which represents more than 300 major companies, has identified Pittsburgh’s energy economy, including sustainable energy, as a key strength of the region.

#8 Centers specializing in sustainability include the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (University of Pittsburgh), the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education & Research (Carnegie Mellon University), Sustainable Pittsburgh, the Rachel Carson Foundation, and the nationally recognized Green Building Alliance.

#9 Energy-related and green companies include: Flabeg (solar thermal technology); Veolia (low energy desalination); PPG (wind energy, and energy efficient window coatings); Serious Materials (High R value windows); Tegrant (High R value insulated concrete building components); BPL Global (smart power grid technology)

#10 Pittsburgh has been a leader in the energy industry since oil was first discovered in 1859 near Pittsburgh. The Mellon family then organized Gulf Oil Corp. The region was built on fossil fuels: oil, coal, and huge deposits of natural gas.

#11 There are 700 energy companies in the region, including leading corporations such as: Westinghouse (nuclear energy), Consol (coal), and Equitable Gas. The National Energy Technology Laboratory is located in Pittsburgh.