Spring Greening

Worldchanging.com: Rebuilding the Crescent City - Green

Historic Green board member Anisa Baldwin Metzger just contributed a terrific piece for Worldchanging, titled “How Local Rebuilding Efforts are Working in New Orleans”. As a recent transplant to the Crescent City, she serves as the U.S. Green Building Council's New Orleans Green Building Coordinator. She writes of the city’s incredibly high rebuilding activity, much of it green, and of some of the projects led by the Make It Right Foundation, the Good Work Network, and The Salvation Army’s EnviRenew program to build 125 green, affordable homes and renovate 125 existing homes.

Go here for the full article.

Nice job Anisa!

Majora Carter In the News

Great story in yesterday’s Times-Picayune about this year’s keynote speaker, Majora Carter:

“With millions of federal dollars in the pipeline for coastal restoration and levee-building projects, New Orleans faces a tremendous opportunity to foster environmental stewardship and build a new workforce, a environmental justice expert said Monday.

Majora Carter, a Bronx native who helped create jobs and better quality of life in her impoverished neighborhood, spoke about the power of environmental justice as an economic and social development tool at a lecture in the Lower 9th Ward. The event was hosted by Historic Green, a nonprofit that brought hundreds of volunteers to work on green-building projects in the city during spring break.”

Read all of “Environmentalism can produce jobs, social uplift, expert says” here.

Majora!

PHOTO: Amy King

Historic Green’s Keynote Speaker, Majora Carter, drew a crowd of more than 200 yesterday to hear her message of green collar jobs and hope for rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward as a vital, thriving New Orleans community. Definitely a highlight of this year’s event, she packed the house at All Souls Episcopal Church & Community Church, formerly a Walgreens store. Majora’s become nationally known as an advocate for environmental justice since founding Sustainable South Bronx (where she pioneered green-collar job training ) and is now head of the Majora Carter Group, LLC, a green-economic development consulting firm. Major is also a part of our Historic Green Advisory Krewe.

We’re extremely proud and honored to host Majora Carter as our lead voice this year!

Our Advisory Krewe

Historic Green's organizing "steering" krewe have a unique opportunity to regularly meet and talk with some of America's leading minds on the subjects of traditional preservation philosophy, sustainable building techniques/strategies, and social equity and outreach.

As a young architect, exposure to Rudy Christian and Bob Berkebile is exciting in itself, but to have them both strategizing on an effort I am personally undertaking, and offering valuable insights based on their experiences here, is an unparallelled experience for me. After hearing Majora Carter provide a keynote address at Greenbuild, it was clear to us that she had experience with another piece of the Lower 9 puzzle, community building and social outreach... Not to mention a great mind for marketing.

Majora arives today at 9am, and leaves for her next project after 6 tonight, so needless to say we've got her on a very tight schedule, but plan to maximize her exposure to the emerging L9 community leaders throughout the day.

Majora Carter: Greening the Ghetto

Dick Moe: Preserving Buildings, Preserving the Planet

  IMAGE: National Trust

Dick Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, sets the stage for why preserving historic buildings and communities is a key element in combating climate change.Dick Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, sets the stage for why preserving historic buildings and communities is a key element in combating climate change:

"Because historic preservation essentially involves the conservation of energy and natural resources it is really the greenest of the building arts. And in this day and age, preserving and recycling buildings can play a vital role overcoming what may be the greatest crisis and challenge of our time: climate change.
...
We must realize that any solution to climate change must include the continued use and retrofit of our existing buildings. That’s where historic preservation can play a significant role.

Retention and reuse of older buildings is an effective tool for responsible, sustainable stewardship of natural resources, including those that have already been expended. Consider the idea of 'embodied energy.'"

Read his full essay, “Preserving Buildings Helps Preserve the Planet”, appearing at Planetizen.com here.

10,000 Solar Roofs

Dear All,

As you know we are in the dawning of new Presidential leadership. At the site below you can sign-up to receive e-mail alerts about the transition activities and also submit ideas for action.

I submitted the idea of a 10,000 solar roofs for the Lower 9th Ward to help the community become carbon natural by 2020. If we do not get our ideas out there no one else will do it for us. 

http://www.change.gov/

Yours in the Struggle,

Darryl

Darryl Malek-Wiley

Regional Representative Environmental-Justice Organizer

Sierra Club