Greetings from our New Orleans Green Building Resource Center

The 4th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the federal levee failures is now past, and Year Five of our rebuilding is underway.  Fortunately, the disaster has not been forgotten nationwide, with many media outlets marking the moment.  Even more importantly, much of the coverage noted our impressive progress to date in rebuilding New Orleans, and not just past years' obsession with how little had been done and how far we still have to go.

We were humbled when TIME Magazine noted Global Green’s commitment and dedication to the sustainable rebuilding of New Orleans by saying "No organization is doing more to green New Orleans than Global Green USA..."  We are truly proud to have contributed to one of the most vital transformations occurring in the city - our growing embrace of energy efficient, healthy and resilient building.  Numerous non-profits, businesses, government officials, and citizens have joined the movement in the past few years, and with the new federal stimulus funds at our back, we are well underway to transforming our community and improving the lives of our citizens for generations to come.

The 4th anniversary seems the right occasion to reflect upon Global Green's work for New Orleans since we opened our office in downtown 6 months after Katrina.  To date, we have:

• Conducted more than 120 free green educational events for residents, builders, architects, elected officials, school administrators, and trade professionals - and by taking most of our efforts to New Orleans' neighborhoods for the past year, have responded to citizens' need for empowerment in their communities.
• Contributed $2 million to green six New Orleans schools, with ongoing technical assistance, green upgrades and energy audits, and cash to pay for more sustainable and energy efficient products, as well as help offset the learning curve for school architects and builders, and creating green curriculum and educational materials for schoolchildren.
• Negotiated free energy audits for all New Orleans schools from the Department of Energy.
• Enabled New Orleans to become a Solar America City with $200,000 and 2 years of technical assistance from the Department of Energy, by helping with the grant application, and putting up $150,000 of our green school funds to help the City meet the DOE's matching funds requirement.
• Secured a $100,000 donation for solar panels from a solar industry trade group.
• Brought Brad Pitt to New Orleans for our Holy Cross design competition, and more than $5 million in funding to date to build the winning design.
• Toured more than 7500 people through our Zero Energy, LEED Platinum Visitor Center since May 2008, our showcase house to educate residents, building professionals and elected officials. 
• Helped draft and enact strong green policy breakthroughs at the state level for green schools and green affordable housing, and at the City level with the City Council's Green Building Resolution and the ordinance requiring Entergy to connect and credit solar panel's electricity.
• Listed the first 2 homes in Holy Cross for sale this week, offering Lower 9th Ward residents green affordable "21st Century shotguns" to return home, and a modestly sized and replicable green housing model that residents will be able to use throughout the city.
• Provided free green building counseling for more than 3 years, 6 days a week for the past 18 months - at our downtown public Resource Center, at our Holy Cross Visitor Center in the Lower 9th Ward, and most recently, with free in-home energy evaluations for our neediest residents - always with the support of professional staff with expert credentials, both LEED accreditations as well as national HERS energy auditor certifications.

In addition, we will be conducting the first annual New Orleans Public Schools Green Jobs Fair next month, linking all public high school students with employers and professionals in 20 green careers in the New Orleans area, with nationally acclaimed speaker Jerome Ringo, and job training information to help our next generation of citizens take advantage of the emerging green economy.

Global Green has been able to deliver all of these services to New Orleans thanks to the generous investment of philanthropic organizations and citizens worldwide who want to see our city not just rebuild, but to thrive post-disaster.  For the past year and a half, our intensive neighborhood outreach effort and in-home energy evaluations have been made possible with the support of two Louisiana philanthropies, the Greater New Orleans Foundation and the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation.  They are also a huge part of our success leveraging their investments to help us achieve many of the other milestones noted above. 

When Louisiana businesses, including philanthropic businesses, make significant investments in effective people and projects that deliver important services and results for Louisianans, we all benefit from a more sustainable state.  Global Green thanks these Louisiana foundations for their vision in supporting entrepreneurial non-profit initiatives to improve Louisiana's economy and our citizens' health, safety and financial security.  We hope that their investment will empower other local businesses and individuals to direct their own capital to support New Orleans' prosperous rebuilding.  Only by investing in our own recovery do we become truly self-sustainable as a city and a state.   

~Beth Galante

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Four Years Later: New Orleans' Green Makeover
Bryan Walsh, Time Magazine

After Hurricane Katrina flattened New Orleans exactly four years ago, on Aug. 29, 2005, the city emerged as an inadvertent symbol of global warming, the first American victim of climate change. More than 200,000 homes were destroyed during the Category 5 hurricane. But in the years since, the Crescent City has quietly embraced a new and unexpected role as a laboratory for green building. Sustainable-development groups like the international nonprofit Global Green as well as earth-friendly celebrities like Brad Pitt descended on New Orleans, determined not just to build the city back but to build it back green. "It's going to come back," says Matt Petersen, the president of Global Green USA. "But we want to build it better than it was before."

No organization is doing more to green New Orleans than Global Green USA, the American arm of the international environmental organization that was founded by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. That begins with the Holy Cross project, an entire sustainable village being built in the city's flood-damaged Lower Ninth Ward with the help of Home Depot's corporate foundation. Eventually the village will include five sustainable homes along with an 18-unit green apartment building and a community center. Three homes have been completed so far, including one that is serving as a de facto visitors center. The point of the project is not just to create greener homes for New Orleans' returning residents but also to provide training for the local building community in green standards. "That's one of the ways to make this kind of building more common and more affordable," says Petersen.

For entire article, please click here.

For more on Global Green USA in the national view:

CNN - Nonprofits help Katrina victims rebuild their homes, lives

New York Times/Greenwire - A Sustainable New Orleans Slowly Rises in Katrina's Wake

AC360.com - "We Are New Orleans" - by Global Green USA President Matt Petersen 

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 Global Green's Holy Cross Development Center praised by VP:

Vice President Joe Biden says stimulus package is helping rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast
Jonathan Tilove, The Times-Picayune

WASHINGTON -- Republican members of the Louisiana congressional delegation opposed it; Gov. Bobby Jindal used a nationally televised address to deride it; and many in New Orleans saw it as a missed opportunity to help the city's hurricane recovery.

But the Obama administration's $786 billion stimulus package is contributing in important ways to rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, Vice President Joe Biden told The Times-Picayune in advance of the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Biden's comments marked the administration's most vigorous and detailed defense of the stimulus bill in the face of local concern that the measure ignored the needs of a community recovering from the nation's costliest disaster.

"A lot of money in the stimulus act -- covering everything from construction, infrastructure to education -- is money that is discretionary, and the discretionary money is designed to go to the places with the most need or the most innovation," Biden said...

"They are going to be actually constructing exactly the kind of thing I think is needed -- their decision, but I happen to think it's a good idea -- a community center that's going to include a visitors' center, corner store, cafe, small bank, ATM, a meeting place -- the kinds of things that will pull a community back together”, the vice president said.

For entire article, please click here.

For the latest updates on our Holy Cross Project construction, please click here:

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TONIGHT: Monthly Panel Discussion

Global Green is proud to partner with the United States Green Building Council, Louisiana Chapter and the American Institute of Architects, New Orleans Chapter to present a monthly panel series on issues of sustainability in the built environment.

This month's panel discussion is hosted by the United States Green Building Council, Louisiana Chapter.

Anisa Baldwin Metzger, USGBC's New Orleans Green Building Coordinator, will present a full update on changes to the LEED Rating System and the LEED AP Professional Credentialing System. The update will include a practical look at new requirements, the new point structure, and new referenced standards in LEEDv3 as well as the changes in place to make  sure the LEED AP Credential maintains its authority and relevance over time.

USGBC-Louisiana wants to help clear up any existing confusion, so use this as a chance to get your questions answered!

Wednesday, September 16th
5:30pm to 7:30pm
Contemporary Arts Center
900 Camp Street, New Orleans

Light refreshments will be served starting at 5:30pm, presentation begins promptly at 6pm. AIA Continuing Education Credits apply.

For more information, please contact Heidi Jensen at our Green Building Resource Center: hjensen@globalgreen.org
For information on this and past panels, please see our website: http://globalgreen.org/events/13

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As our long hot summer (hopefully) winds down, New Orleanians are prepared to take a breather from high utility bills before winter brings new energy costs.  Low income families often devote a large percentage of their monthly expenses to heating and cooling costs, causing other areas of spending to be squeezed, such as medicine or savings.  These families may or may not be aware that weatherizing their homes for energy efficiency greens the planet as well as improves indoor air quality, but the direct benefits to homeowners can be immediately apparent.

Making simple low- to no-cost upgrades to the home such as caulking, sealing ducts, adding insulation, etc., can mean a twenty percent decrease in a monthly energy bill!  Through the “Build It Back Green” outreach and workshop activities, we’ve been able to reach thousands of homeowners throughout the city with information about energy efficiency, and connected individuals with additional resources that will help bridge the gap between idea and application.

Call us today for assistance in greening your home! 504-525-2121. 

Build It Back Green events in our community:

TONIGHT: BIBG Presentation at ASI
3401 St. Claude Ave. New Orleans, LA 70116
September 16, 2009
5:45pm to 6:15pm
In-depth presentation of the Top 10 Tips to a group of first-time homeowners

OC Haley Main St. Marketplace
On the corner of O.C. Haley Blvd. and Felicity St.
September 19, 2009
12:00pm to 4:00pm
http://www.ochaleyblvd.org/

For more information on Build It Back Green events, view our BIBG Calendar here.

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Global Green First Annual Green Jobs Career Fair

Global Green is sponsoring the 1st Annual Green Jobs Career Fair for New Orleans public high school students on Saturday, October 24, 2009, from 8:30am to 4:30pm at Cohen High School in uptown New Orleans. The purpose of this event is to promote career awareness, to explore businesses in and around New Orleans, and career preparation for high school students to help them realize the connection between their studies and the skills and aptitudes needed by employers specifically in the green jobs sector. This event is free to all participants and breakfast and lunch will be provided.

We will highlight at least 20 green careers/jobs, including solar installers, energy raters, green architects, green developers, and many others. Our keynote speaker will be Jerome Ringo, President of the Apollo Alliance. The Apollo Alliance is a coalition of labor, business, environmental, and community leaders working to catalyze a clean energy revolution that will put millions of Americans to work in a new generation of high-quality, green-collar jobs. Inspired by the Apollo space program, the Apollo Alliance promotes investments in energy efficiency, clean power, mass transit, next-generation vehicles, and emerging technology, as well as in education and training. _____________________________________________________________________________

The U.S. Green Building Council will be presenting workshops on LEED Core Concepts & Strategies, Green Home Design and Construction and the LEED Implementation Process:

October 19th and 20th, 2009
8:30 am 5:00 pm
Loyola University
Communications/Music Complex, Studio A
6363 St. Charles Ave., 3rd Floor
New Orleans, LA

The October 19th workshop will provide essential knowledge of the LEED Rating Systems and sustainable building concepts for those seeking a better understanding of LEED or pursuing GBCI’s LEED Green Associate credential, while the workshop on the 20th is intended for residential design and construction professionals involved in implementing the LEED® for Homes Rating System, as well as those pursuing GBCI’s LEED AP for Homes credential and construction.

For more information and to register, please see the USGBC-LA website, here: http://www.usgbc-louisiana.org/

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Greening Your News: Global Green New Orleans Now Offering Daily Green Building Updates