Global Green News
New post-Katrina construction shows that a sustainable industry may have come out of the storm
THE TIMES-PICAYUNE. AUGUST 31, 2009. By Kim Quillen
New Orleans' "green" building infrastructure is only partially developed, but has made significant strides since getting a jumpstart from Hurricane Katrina, according to local environmental advocates and home builders.
With several high-profile green home developments under construction and an expanded pool of contractors knowledgeable about new building practices and recent changes in city and state policies, many believe New Orleans is poised for a flurry of environmentally-friendly construction.
New resources moved in soon after Hurricane Katrina, with environmental nonprofits such as Global Green setting up offices within a year of the storm. Other nonprofits and businesses have continued to sprout according to a report recently released by the Sierra Club, which found that approximately one-quarter of existing green building organizations have been in New Orleans for three or more years, while another quarter arrived within the past year. More than half of the groups offer technical assistance for residents and builders, the report states.
Referring to the Global Green office and resource center, its green-built home in Holy Cross -- open for tours -- and the BuildSmart demonstration home within the headquarters of the nonprofit Alliance for Affordable Energy, Darryl Malek-Wiley, regional representative for the Sierra Club, said residents now have "three different places they can go to talk about green building options." Each of the centers opened since Katrina.
Several nonprofits also have supported green-home developments that offer residents examples of sustainable construction, Malek-Wiley added.
Thirteen completed Make It Right homes in the Lower 9th Ward all contain green building features that address energy-efficiency, material selection, indoor air quality and water management, said Tom Darden, the building initiative's director. The homes have the highest ratings from the U.S. Green Building Council and the National Association of Home Builders.
In addition to big-ticket features such as solar panels, which Darden said have resulted in monthly energy bills as low as $30, the Make It Right homes feature recycled-content carpeting; cisterns, rain gardens and permeable concrete to retain rainwater; and wood harvested from sustainable forests that also is mold- and termite-resistant. The organization hopes to reach its target of 150 completed homes in the next year, Darden said.
"The energy bills are really low, and (homeowners) are incredibly excited about that," he said. "One of our families claims that her children's asthma has gotten much better since they've been living there.
"We hope to be a catalyst for additional green building."
Global Green has completed three of the five single-family homes it plans to construct in Holy Cross. One of them functions as a display home to show off features such as energy-efficient appliances, a monitor that tracks real-time energy and water consumption and a programmable thermostat to curb air conditioning use. At least one home is expected to hit the market next month, with a price tag of $185,000, said Executive Director Beth Galante.
The nonprofit also has completed a total of nearly $300,000 in environmentally-friendly improvements to four New Orleans elementary schools, and is in the process of donating $720,000 in state-of-the-art green renovations to Andrew H. Wilson Elementary School in Broadmoor and L.B. Landry High School in Algiers. Both pools of school improvement money came from the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund.
Progress toward a mature green-building infrastructure is "one of the silver linings of Katrina," Galante said.
