Rebuilding New Orleans
Global Green Responded to Hurricane Katrina through smart solutions to climate change and the green rebuilding of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast
Immediately after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Global Green was on the ground in New Orleans, evaluating how we could respond to the disaster. Since then, Global Green has unveiled an aggressive plan to rebuild New Orleans green, including:
- THE HOLY CROSS PROJECT
With lead funding from the Home Depot Foundation, Global Green USA is building a sustainable low-income housing community for New Orleans' ravaged Ninth Ward. - GREEN SCHOOLS INITIATIVE
With the help of a $2 million grant from the Bush Clinton Katrina Fund, Global Green launched a high performance schools initiative that is helping benefit thousands of New Orleans students. - INFLUENCING POLICY IN NEW ORLEANS AND THE GULF COAST
Global Green USA is working with local and state authorities to implement green rebuilding policies in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. - THE GREEN BUILDING RESOURCE CENTER
In early 2006, Global Green opened an office in New Orleans, which now serves as a focal point for the community and is a beacon for sustainable building and design.
OUR GREEN REBUILDING TIMELINE:
May 2008 First Model Home open to the public as a Visitor Center.
April 2008 Construction on first home is completed.
October 2007 Global Green USA hosts its biennial International General Assembly chaired by President Gorbachev in New Orleans. President Gorbachev tours the devestation of the 9th ward and calls for a “revolution” if there is not substantial progress within five years. He is joined by delegates from more than two dozen countries who tour the home.
August 2007 Global Green celebrates a milestone before the 2nd Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina by touring progress of the first green home at the Holy Cross Project with Design Competition Chair Brad Pitt and lead funding partner, The Home Depot Foundation. Progress made at the Holy Cross site is featured on the Today Show and other national and international media
August 2007 Global Green President Matt Petersen announces the second phase of its Capital Campaign seeking $10 million dollars for the final construction and ongoing operation of its groundbreaking Community Center/Sustainable Design and Climate Action Institute project, which will be a major feature of the Holy Cross Project
August 2007 Global Green hosts its first Louisiana Green Schools Workshop at Xavier University in New Orleans - a day long discussion of current green school practices and opportunities to create healthy, high performance classrooms throughout the state of Louisiana.
July 2007 Leveraging it’s Green Seed School’s work, Global Green assists the City of New Orleans in securing a $200K grant from the Department of Energy to fund solar technology development in New Orleans
May 2007 Global Green selects its first Green Seed School, A.P. Tureaud, provides technical expertise and financial assistance for upgrades and completes energy audit and air testing
June 2007 Global Green conducts media event to announce Green Schools program, identifies initial schools and invites public schools’ application for consideration as one of the remaining 3-4 Green Seed Schools
May 2007 Global Green identifies and conducts initial outreach to candidate schools, including meeting with neighborhood groups, school administrators, facilities managers, architects, contractors and touring facilities. Global Green presents K-12 students aerial art showcase celebrating the Green Schools Initiative and Green Rebuilding of New Orleans – the large-scale human art mural created with the assistance of aerial artist John Quigley or Spectral Q
May 2007 Global Green names the Home Depot Foundation as its lead funding partner for the Holy Cross Project – the first low income sustainable housing development in the ravaged Lower 9th Ward. The project is based on the design of Workhop/apd, the NY firm that won Global Green’s Sustainable Design Competition chaired by Brad Pitt
April 2007 Global Green drafts Green Seed School criteria
Jan-February 2007 Global Green meets with all primary stakeholders in the New Orleans public school system including St. Bernard Parish public schools, the New Orleans Parish School Board and the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Louisiana Recovery Authority adopts green schools criteria
Jan-February 2007 Global Green assists the City of New Orleans Recovery Director in seeking a grant from the Department of Energy to fund solar technology development in New Orleans
January 2007 Global Green begins outreach to all hurricane-impacted affiliates of Habitat for Humanity to provide education on green affordable housing throughout the region.
December 2006 Global Green purchases site in the lower 9th Ward and begins permitting and construction document process to begin construction of winner of Sustainable Design Competition in Spring 2007
December 2006 Global Green finalizes green schools criteria for the state recovery authority, and begins meeting with school officials and drafting school selection criteria for Green Schools program
November 2006 Global Green begins assisting New Orleans affiliate of Habitat for Humanity in construction of low-income housing in the city
October 2006 Global Green begins monthly green building workshops at Resource Center in partnership with AIA-New Orleans, and begins monthly newsletter dedicated to green building in New Orleans
Fall 2006 State Louisiana Housing Finance Authority adopts green building criteria in low-income housing tax credit allocation process
September 2006 State Hurricane Recovery Authority asks Global Green to draft green schools criteria for all of the hurricane impacted parishes in the state
September 2006 Global Green receives grant from the Bush Clinton Katrina Fund to green New Orleans schools. President Clinton announces grant at press conference at which he also reveals that New Orleans has been selected as a Clinton Climate Initiative city for assistance in reducing the carbon footprint of the world’s largest cities.
September 2006 Final judging of six finalists by design jury chaired by Brad Pitt, green building technical jury and Holy Cross residents, site of the competition in the lower 9th Ward. The winning design team is featured on the Today show with Brad Pitt and Global Green president Matt Petersen
August 2006 the New Orleans City Council adopts green building resolution drafted by Global Green to begin the greening of city government
July 2006 First round of design competition judging of 126 entries from all over the world picked six finalists to compete in the final round, three with New Orleans connections
June 2006 Grand Opening of Global Green Resource Center in downtown New Orleans, showcasing more than 60 green building materials and providing books, magazines, computers and one-on-one consultation to residents as they begin to rebuild.
April 2006 announced Sustainable Building Design Competition with actor Brad Pitt to challenge the world to create a model green building housing development for New Orleans
January 2006 Global Green to open its Green Building Resource Center modeled on the successful center that Global Green operates in Santa Monica, and hired two local displaced New Orleanians and opened Global Green New Orleans Office
December 2005 Global Green is working with USGBC to create a one-stop green building resource webtool for New Orleans residents.
December 2005 Global Greens Senior Program Associate Ted Bardacke attends Habitat for Humanitys Construction Symposium in Atlanta as part of its Operation Home Delivery efforts.
November 2005 Global Green featured its New Orleans efforts at its annual Designing a Sustainable and Secure World Awards where acclaimed musician Dr. John also performed. Global Green raised more than $15,000 towards its Katrina Relief efforts that evening.
November 2005 Global Green invited a contingent of New Orleans environmentalists, architects, builders and entrepreneurs to discuss its green building Katrina Relief efforts in NYC.
November 2005 Global Green receives USGBC Advocacy Award for more than 10 years of work to significantly advance green building in affordable housing and public buildings that has leveraged well over $20 billion dollars in green construction.
November 2005 Global Green helps to organize design charettes at Green Build Conference in Atlanta to explore ways to rebuild homes, schools and buildings with green design principles.
October 29 2005 Global Green returns to New Orleans to participate in the second Alliance for Energy Meeting and oversees filming of interviews for video on its Katrina Relief efforts.
October 25 & 26 2005 Global Green President Matt Petersen invited to present its Katrina Relief Initiative at the Green Funders annual meeting in Cleveland, Ohio.
October 24 2005 Matt Petersen tours New Orleans and visits two schools (Priestly High School and Wooden Elementary) that could be model green building projects. Without operating schools, few families can return to New Orleans
October 17 2005 Global Green hires Jane Booth, a New Orleans based attorney and former Planning Commissioner, to be its on-the-ground coordinator.
October 9 2005 Global Green's Monica Gilchrist tours New Orleans with locally renowned architect John Williams and meets with local activist groups interested in rebuilding green. While in the 9th Ward, Gilchrist also observed one of the first Jazz Funerals held after the hurricane.
October 8 2005 Matt Petersen and Monica Gilchrist attend Alliance for Energy meeting in Baton Rouge with more than 100 attendees. Petersen presents Global Greens vision for rebuilding healthy homes and neighborhoods and begins creating substantial relationships with Louisiana based organizations. (For more information visit www.all4energy.org)
October 7 2005 Global Green USA goes to Shreveport for first American Planning Association meeting of the Louisiana Chapter to build alliances with local groups and individuals and learn from international representatives who have rebuilt cities after natural disasters. (For more information visit www.louisiana-apa.org)
September 26 2005 Global Green invited to participate in weekly U.S. Department of Energy call to coordinate activities and share information with USGBC, HUD, FEMA, NAHB, Habitat for Humanity, Federation of American Scientists, Alliance for Affordable Energy, Enterprise Foundation, LSU and Tex as A&M.
September 17 2005 Global Green President Matt Petersen recruits honorary steering committee for Healthy Homes, Smart Neighborhoods Response Team including Leonardo DiCaprio, General Wesley Clark, Julian Bond and Lee Hamilton.
September 6 2005 Global Green USA begins weekly dialogues with Healthy Building Network, Enterprise Foundation, Habitat for Humanity and National Council of Churches to explore ways to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf region with green building principles that Global Green has pioneered for afford able housing and schools for more than a decade.