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The only thing constant is change. Crisp fall days have finally started to arrive - a welcome change of season. The Saints have finally become the team we thought they were - an exciting change of fortune. We all know that change is inevitable, whether it is something that we leave to chance and time, or something that we choose through hard work and perseverance. ~Beth Galante ___________________________________________________
Global Green is sponsoring the 1st Annual Green Jobs Career Fair to promote green career awareness, explore businesses in and around New Orleans, and provide career preparation for high school and college 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, as well as free transportation upon request. Saturday, October 24th 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. For more information on this important event, free transportation and registration, please click here: http://globalgreen.org/events/90
Tom's of Maine has selected our project as a Top 50 finalist out of over 2000 applications to receive one of five $20,000 grants! You can vote for our project - Home Energy Efficiency for a Sustainable New Orleans - located in the Environment tab here. All applicants are community involvement projects from non-profit organizations. We need your help to be in the Top 5. Voice your opinion and vote for our project TODAY, and every day through October 30th. _________________________________________
On the third Wednesday of each month, 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. Living Rooftops: Green Roofs In Louisiana and Our Coastal Communities Green, vegetated rooftops create a variety of environmental benefits, including lowered energy costs, pollution and storm water runoff as well as the reduction of the urban heat island effect. Join Global Green as we host leading local architects, installers, landscapers and homeowners in this discussion of the booming, blooming green roof industry - the impacts on our environment, politics, finances, and the beauty of our coastal communities. Featured speakers to include John Anderson, LEED AP Architect and Bay St Louis homeowner with green roof, Mike Schultz, New Orleans roofing consultant with Juneau Odenwald and Patrick Ibert, designer of the Edible School Yard at Samuel Green Charter School in New Orleans. Wednesday, October 21st Our panel discussions are free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served beginning at 5:30pm, presentation begins promptly at 6pm. AIA Continuing Education Credits apply. With very special thanks to our good friends at Whole Foods Market for their generous support. For more information, please contact Heidi Jensen at our Green Building Resource Center: hjensen@globalgreen.org, and for information on this and past panels, please see the Global Green website: http://globalgreen.org/events/13 ___________________________________________
Green Rebuilding of New Orleans Needs to be Accelerated to Create Sustainable Economy and Fight Climate Change According to Time Magazine, “No organization is doing more to green New Orleans than Global Green USA..” Global Green has been responsible for the investment of tens of millions of dollars in new green housing and school projects which have created thousands of green jobs. Just a few blocks from the MLK School, Global Green is building the Holy Cross Project, the first sustainable village in the 9th Ward, with lead funding partner The Home Depot Foundation. The completed project will include five single family homes, a multi-unit apartment complex, and a Community Center. The Holy Cross Project features green products and energy efficient systems that support sustainable living for low-income families. New Orleans post-Katrina is a place of great opportunity to redevelop the city in a more sustainable and environmentally responsible manner. One of many the ways in which Global Green USA is getting involved is through the Build it Back Green (BIBG) program. BIBG works directly with the local community to provide education and implementation of weatherization techniques (creating tightly insulated, less wasteful and more energy efficient homes) as well as advice on everyday behaviors which save money and help the environment. By performing “walkthroughs” of the home, the BIBG team is able to properly assess major sources of air leakage and advise the homeowner on possible solutions to cut down on high electricity/water bills and improve poor indoor air quality. This process helps homeowners understand how their home works as a system and provides a resource for any energy efficiency questions. If you would like to learn how to improve the functioning of your home and/or have any questions, please visit the Global Green Resource Center at 841 Carondelet or call 504-525-2121. Ready to lend a hand to green New Orleans? Now's the time to join the Build it Back Green Ambassador Corps! Sign up today and you can help us weatherize homes and get the word out about energy efficiency. No experience necessary! Email rteter@globalgreen.org For the most up-to-date events listings for Build It Back Green, please click here. NOLA Recycles 2010 - Campaign Launch Join a coalition of concerned citizens who will work together to make recycling a reality in New Orleans in 2010. Our goal is to influence the mayoral race and elect a mayor who will develop a comprehensive waste management program that minimizes the health and environmental impact of waste disposal, as well as taps the value of waste materials to build a local recycling economy. Join us and get involved! Monday October 26, 2009 RSVP Here! http://nolarecycles2010.eventbrite.com Follow: http://twitter.com/NOLARecycles ______________________________________________
So it's Friday morning, and I'm driving down the Lake Hermitage Road when my mind quickly connects this spot 30 miles south of New Orleans to Ilulissat in Greenland, Alexander Island in Antarctica and the Louisiana Congressional delegation. No, I was not nibbling the mushroom boudin. Those spots connected because Friday morning the Lake Hermitage Road was covered with 3 to 6 inches of water -- and it was getting deeper. Now if this had been happening during any of the tropical storms of recent years, it wouldn't be newsworthy. But the only thing going on in the Gulf on Friday was a stiff south-southwest wind. So why was this Plaquemines Parish road flooding? For the same reason anglers all across southeast Louisiana were finding roads flooding outside hurricane protection levees Friday. And the same reason the glacier at Ilulissat, Greenland, is melting at a record rate, and the Wilkins Ice Shelf on Alexander Island at the other end of the world is falling apart. It's called climate change, specifically a warming of the atmosphere and oceans that is causing glaciers and ice sheets to melt, which is adding to a dramatic increase in the rate of sea level rise. That news means nothing but trouble for any coastal community in the world, but it's a certain death sentence for southeast Louisiana. And that's because while the Gulf of Mexico has begun rising at a record rate, the dying delta we live on is sinking at the fastest rate of any land mass in North America. The Florida Keys will still be dry long after the southeast coast of Louisiana is part of the Gulf. Please read entire article here.
Four years after the levee failures, New Orleans is seeing an unexpected boom in architectural experimentation. Small, independent developers are succeeding in getting houses built where the government has failed. And the city's unique challenges—among them environmental impediments, an entrenched culture of leisure, and a casual acquaintance with regulation—are spurring design innovations that may redefine American architecture for a generation. A sturdy bike is a good way to get around the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. The roads are still pretty rough, the distances between places tend to be too long to walk and too short to drive, and on a bike you can easily stop and chat with the residents who have returned. I moved to New Orleans about a year after Hurricane Katrina, and I’ve ridden my bike out here every month or two to see how the rebuilding has been faring. Also, I’ve heard that Brad Pitt likes to bike around when he’s in town. Folks tell me he’s a pretty regular guy. “Brad was here yesterday,” a woman sitting on the front steps of her new and very modern house told me one day last fall. “He was talking to everyone, just checking things out.” He has a lot to check out, as it happens. Next to the levee along the Mississippi River sits the experimental “project house” of Global Green, a nonprofit Pitt has been working with that’s trying to replace homes lost in the flood with energy-efficient ones. From there, it takes about 10 minutes to bike to the northern edge of the Ninth Ward, where the Industrial Canal flood wall collapsed in August 2005. Along the way you pass shotgun houses in various stages of repair and disrepair; Fats Domino’s home, from which he was rescued; and a large sculpture of empty chairs commemorating the hundreds who died in the storm. As you get closer to the failed flood wall, the land becomes more open and rural-looking, and the blackbirds grow louder. Only concrete steps standing in front of concrete slabs suggest the community that existed before the rushing waters erased it. Four years after Katrina, the rebuilding of New Orleans is not proceeding the way anyone envisioned, nor with the expected cast of characters. (If I may emphasize: Brad Pitt is the city’s most innovative and ambitious housing developer.) But it’s hard to say what people were expecting, given the magnitude of the disaster and the hopes raised in the weeks immediately following. Seventeen days after the storm, President George W. Bush stood in Jackson Square and promised: “We will stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives.” In the absence of strong central leadership, the rebuilding has atomized into a series of independent neighborhood projects. And this has turned New Orleans—moist, hot, with a fecund substrate that seems to allow almost anything to propagate—into something of a petri dish for ideas about housing and urban life. An assortment of foundations, church groups, academics, corporate titans, Hollywood celebrities, young people with big ideas, and architects on a mission have been working independently to rebuild the city’s neighborhoods, all wholly unconcerned about the missing master plan. It’s at once exhilarating and frightening to behold. Please read entire article in the Atlantic here. ________________________________________________
In an effort to help New Orleanians keep on top of the latest sustainable building news, we are now offering daily email updates highlighting notable news from around the city, the country and the world. If you'd like to receive these updates, just send an email to jlindquist@globalgreen.org, and we'll add you to our list. Let us scour the news, so you don't have to! | |||||
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Greetings from our New Orleans Green Building Resource Center
THIS SATURDAY! Global Green's 1st Annual FREE Green Jobs Career Fair 
Help Build It Back Green Win a $20,000 Grant!
TONIGHT: Monthly Panel Discussion
President Obama Tours Global Green USA Green Seed School in Lower 9th Ward
Political Wrangling Needs Change in Climate
The Atlantic - "Houses of the Future"
Greening Your News: Global Green New Orleans Now Offering Daily Green Building Updates