A water leak detection system saves Cranberry about $150,000 and 65 million gallons of water a year. A competition among 10 South Hills municipalities has increased recycling by 11 percent. And because of greening infrastructure, Ohiopyle Borough in Fayette County diverts 199,120 gallons of stormwater during each rainstorm.

Pittsburgh boasts of its greening initiatives, but at the recent Creating Sustainable Communities conference at Point Park University, representatives of several municipalities outside of the city and their partner organizations spoke about the economic benefits they are reaping in environmental improvements.

Roxanne Swann of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania said rain gardens "are fast becoming an effective green infrastructure method to mitigate stormwater run-off in numerous municipalities."

Among them are Moon and Shaler. Kevin Creagh, engineer for Shaler, said a 1,700-square-foot rain garden has been installed to catch runoff from the municipal complex. The Pine Creek Watershed needed some relief, he said, when the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, the North Area Environmental Council and the local watershed coalition teamed up to submit a watershed improvement plan to the state Department of Environmental Protection for grant funding.

"We got $24,000 this year to bid it out for design," he said. "Shaler did not have to put a single dollar toward it."

The rain garden absorbs "one-quarter to one-third of [water from] our roof area," he said. "We are doing renovations in 2012 to other parts of the roof to channel more water."

Township officials hope the rain garden demonstrates how residents can install smaller versions to further reduce the amount of stormwater that goes into the municipality's lines, he said.

An innovative measure in Cranberry's plan is a simple light-switch cover, "99-cent plastic boxes that make you think twice about whether you need the light," said John Trant, chief strategy officer for the township. The idea is if you don't really need the light, you won't bother to open the box.

In addition, he said, "hibernating" personal computers overnight saves Cranberry $10,000 a year.

Cranberry gives residents bins for recycling but charges them for bins that collect garbage that goes to a landfill. As a result, he said, Cranberry recycles about 42 percent of its waste.

"We did ads," he said, pointing his finger to mimic local attorney Edgar Snyder in a variation on his advertising: "There's never a fee unless we get garbage from you!"

In a speech to the conferees, former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy said that economic and environmental problems have worsened largely due to sprawl, inefficiency and lack of collaboration.

Now a senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute, he said "though many people think the economy we are in now is just a cycle and that we'll go back to the way it was, some people are getting it that this is not a cycle. We are in a game-changing situation.

"We have 74,000 local governments in the United States and half of them are in Allegheny County," he joked to make the point that streamlined land use and collaborative policies are critical to the nation's future.

In Mt. Lebanon, an environmental sustainability advisory board was formed three years ago to look at energy use sy government, school and residential levels, said Tom Kelley, director of public works.

A 10-year plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is complete "and now the board is working toward implementing 10 strategies," he said.

Since 2008, Mt. Lebanon has more than doubled its recycling tonnage. Its competition with Upper St. Clair, Scott, Dormont, Brentwood, Baldwin, Jefferson Hills, South Park, Peters and Pleasant Hills has raised all of their efforts.

"We collect monthly information from haulers, and so far we're 11 percent across the board above last year," he said. "The higher our recycling, the more state incentive funding we can get."

Mt. Lebanon also has replaced its incandescent traffic lights with LED lights, which use 70 percent less energy, and expects a payback within 17 months.

It charges its residents a stormwater fee "so we can make upgrades and work on stormwater retention projects," he said. The municipality gives residents who install rain barrels a one-time credit of up to $50.

"Anytime there's a large storm, runoff becomes the most critical problem. We're going to develop a five-year plan of improvements."

In Ohiopyle, which is a one-half square mile borough surrounded by Ohiopyle State Park, a green-street project has replaced 15,976 square feet of pavement with absorbent pavement, installed 3,723 square feet of bioswales -- a form of rain garden -- and planted 48 street trees and 574 native plants. The borough has 41 rain barrels collecting stormwater from roofs.

Janie French, director of green infrastructure programs at the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, said the council worked with the borough, the Fayette County Redevelopment Authority and the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to develop a plan "whose guiding principles were clean water, sustainable buildings, sustainable landscaping and energy efficiency," she said.

Mr. Trant said Cranberry's comprehensive plan, which began in 2007 and was adopted in 2009, "infused sustainability into policies and procedures as an everyday part of what we do."

"We did a sustainability assessment and Sustainable Pittsburgh's checklist, pulling back the curtain and looking at everything -- physical plants, vehicles, everything -- and made recommendations on how we could be more efficient."

The pay-as-you-throw recycling project is "a direct connection" between garbage and the cost of its collection. Otherwise, he said, "millions of dollars are hidden costs that are absorbed into the general fund budget and general tax dollars." Recycling is an incentive to decrease the cost, he said.

The township saves $50,000 a year on LED traffic signals. The borough's zoning ordinance was modified to promote higher density, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use development, and the township's fleet of hybrid vehicles get 15-20 more miles per gallon than a conventional fleet.

Moon solved a swamp problem and found a place for a memorial garden in one project.

Fire Marshal Charles Belgie had applied for a piece of steel from the World Trade Center site in New York City two years ago and was looking for a place to put it "when we were approached by the Audubon Society to develop a rain garden in our [municiipal] complex. So it kind of went hand in hand."

Ms. Swann said the site takes some of the stormwater run-off from Beaver Grade Road. It is 100-by-300 feet.

Two years ago, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy helped students and staff at Kerr Elementary School in the Fox Chapel Area School District install a rain garden to mitigate run-off from the parking lot and prevent erosion behind the school property.

The school also added a vegetable and a butterfly garden at the site.

Ms. Swann described these projects as having escalating benefits: One benefit leads to another.

A rain garden first stops water from running off into storm sewers. Then it becomes proactive, he said. "It can recharge ground water, it filters pollutants from entering waterways and the plants provide habitat and biodiversity."