MSPPM Alumni Awarded Prestigious Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship

Two recent MSPPM program graduates have been selected as 2008 Echoing Green Fellows in Social Entrepreneurship. 

Selected out of 1500 applicants from 83 countries, Andrew Butcher and Chris Koch have been honored for their work in founding and running Growth Through Energy Health and Community Health (GTECH) Strategies, a social enterprise that serves as a community redevelopment strategy for the City of Pittsburgh.

The organization works to improve neighborhoods by reclaiming and revitalizing vacant land; implementing innovative green strategies such as planting bio-fuel feedstock (sunflower, canola, and switch grass crops); and providing education and “green collar” job training services for urban youth, entry level workers, and residents of economically distressed communities in the region.

GTECH is one of only nineteen start-up organizations selected for this year’s fellowship. The fellowship brings an unrestricted cash award of $90,000 over two years, technical assistance and provides medical benefits to Butcher and Koch during their two-year tenure as fellows.

GTECH was created while Koch, Butcher, and co-founder Matthew Ciccone were finishing their degree at the Heinz School in the spring of 2007 in collaboration with Steel City Biofuels Director Nathaniel Doyno.