The opportunity to rebuild New Orleans as an international example of sustainability comes in the aftermath of what is increasingly being recognized as the tipping point for global awareness of climate change and its devastating impacts. Global Green is committed to helping New Orleans rebuild and to use the national and international attention on the city as a wake-up call to push urgently for solutions to global warming. Global Green is accomplishing this through many initiatives including The Holy Cross Project which is going for the USGBC’s highest LEED certification.
The project consists of five affordable single family homes and an 18-unit apartment building for returning residents, plus a community center that will house a bank, grocery and café, offices for Global Green and the neighborhood association, and a Climate Action Center. The first completed home, which is powered by the sun, awaits its LEED Platinum certification. The house gains 100% of its electric needs via solar panels, and boasts unique features such as a green roof, vegetated screening, salvaged flooring, geothermal heating and cooling, energy and resource monitoring systems, and energy efficient appliances.
The Global Green House is open to the public, educating hundreds of visitors each week. Beyond the Holy Cross Project, Global Green’s Public Resources Center provides one-on-one technical assistance to New Orleans residents. Global Green’s policy initiatives have helped to create generous state solar tax credits, green criteria in new low income housing construction and financial incentives for homeowners generating solar and wind power in New Orleans.
+ Global Green New Orleans
+ Workshop/APD
+ Holy Cross Project on Flickr
Please note that this year was the first for the “Historic Green” volunteer effort in New Orleans, making the case for adaptive reuse of existing buildings, preserving both our natural resources and the cultural lineage of the Crescent City! http://www.historicgreen.org
I am from new orleans, and it is really cool to see that they are rebuilding things in a healthy way! The worry is though, they may be rebuilding houses but they have not updated the whole levee system, most the city has poor drainage, and the houses are built in areas doomed to suffer severe floods over and over due to it being swamp land not meant to build on. Sustainable should be considered in every step – and number one would be to keep the city from being destroyed before re-building it.
[...] of Architecture as they design and build a low-cost sustainable home for a family returning to New Orleans. An excellent example of integrating students within a community, the three year venture will join [...]