USGBC Spearheads Hurricane Initiative at Greenbuil

Washington, DC, October 21, 2005--The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), together with the Enterprise Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, the Trust for Public Land and others have announced a “full complement” of initiatives and ideas designed to assist in the rebuilding efforts of the Gulf Coast communities ravaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The immediate opportunity that presents itself is during the Council's annual 2005 Greenbuild Conference & Expo, which will be held in Atlanta on November 9-11, 2005. The charrettes will take place during Greenbuild in order to harness the talents of its 10,000+ professional attendees and the value of its 150 educational sessions. Greenbuild attendees, many of whom represent chapters and other USGBC organization members, have expressed an interest in helping with rebuilding in the aftermath of the hurricane. Thanks to fast action by the Greenbuild local host committee and under the direction of Peter Templeton, vice president of Education & Research, USGBC, charrettes with Gulf Coast experts and government leaders and mini-charrettes on specific topics with regional experts have been organized. “Scholarships” have been arranged for 30 Gulf Coast community leaders to come and be a part of the proceedings. “This is about collaboration, partnership, and leadership,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO & founding chair, USGBC. ““The rebuilding effort will be a Herculean task, and the USGBC is committed to providing our specific expertise to helping the citizens of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas re-set their roots and restore their communities as viable, vital, healthy and productive places, as quickly as possible and in a way that support them in the long term .” To take point on USGBC's effort, Fedrizzi has tapped Bill Browning, a partner in the Washington, DC-based firm Browning + Banning, LLC, and the founder of Rocky Mountain Institute's Green Development Services. Browning was instrumental in the Council's development, and has experience in disaster recovery work gained during the massive flooding in the 1990s of the Mississippi flood plains and from working with relief agencies on sustainable design for refugee settlements. The Greenbuild panel sessions will focus on embedding sustainable strategies in the rebuilding effort and will culminate in a documentation work session on Friday, November 11, 2005 that will compile all the ideas generated in order to quickly produce a workable document to guide the reconstruction efforts. “At Greenbuild, we will devise a plan to offer real services to those that are located in the hurricane stricken regions,” said Browning. “We don't want this to be an academic exercise.”

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