August 18, 2009
Contact: Oliver Bernstein, Sierra Club, 512-477-2152
Sierra Club Marks Katrina Anniversary with New Report:
"New Orleans Green Building Assessment"
New Orleans -- Approaching the 4th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, the Sierra Club today released a new report analyzing the green rebuilding efforts under way in New Orleans. The devastation of Hurricane Katrina has provided the city of New Orleans with a unique opportunity to develop a national model for rebuilding green.
This "New Orleans Green Building Assessment" examines the current and former green building efforts in New Orleans, noting partnerships and potential strategies for improvement throughout. Download a copy of the report at http://www.sierraclub.org/ej/downloads/2009-06-nola.pdf
"This assessment documents and merges the disparate green building efforts into one central location and successfully fulfilled its stated goals," said Sierra Club environmental justice organizer Darryl Malek-Wiley at a press conference held today in New Orleans to release the report. "Moving forward, this document provides a foundation for the city to develop a “best practices” model for rebuilding green, focusing on the city’s existing and emerging partnerships."
The report's five goals are to profile key agencies; to catalog current and former green building projects; to evaluate the capacity and needs of each business and organization; to assess the current green building situation; and to develop a directory of local green building service providers.
The report was assembled with help from graduate candidates at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Kristin McKee and Shawn Dillard, with help from the Sierra Club-Delta Chapter (New Orleans).
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