In addition to all the green rebuilding efforts underway throughout the Crescent City, existing homes that survived the post-storm flooding are also getting eco-friendly makeovers. Those efforts received a boost earlier this summer, when the New Orleans City Council approved the Energy Smart New Orleans Energy Efficiency Program.

Among the program’s goals

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Among those leading the way are groups like the National Council of Churches of Christ (NCC), whose Eco-Justice Working Group includes participants of every denomination from African Methodist Episcopal to Greek Orthodox and Mennonite. The NCC’s Washington, D.C.-based Eco-Justice Program also provides a wealth of resources to help churches and church-goers take environmental action.

Many of those actions are highlighted in the Eco-Justice Program’s guide to “Bottom Line Ministries that Matter: Congregational Stewardship with Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Technologies.” Among the success stories held up as examples in the report:

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For lovers of historic architecture, what can beat a stroll down one of the streets of the French Quarter or Garden District? And, of course, for people-watching, live music, a few of the good kind of Hurricanes (thanks, Pat O’s!) and general weirdness, there’s nothing like a walk along Bourbon Street, day or night.

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Started by volunteers in March 2006 — about a half-year after Hurricane Katrina and the levee-failure flooding of New Orleans — RUBARB was inspired by a much-repeated experience of hurricane cleanup crews: pulling bicycle after unused, flood-damaged bicycle from the mountains of trash that covered the city. Rather than consign these flood bikes to the post-Katrina dump, these volunteers decided, why not clean them, fix them and then pass them along to residents and other volunteers who need them?

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The group of nine students expect to study Bayou Bienvenue, testing water, surveying vegetation and researching whether the area could be restored with a diversion dam that would help bring in fresh water and sediment. They also plan to talk with neighborhood residents about their concerns and will even host a crab boil to involve the community.

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Their efforts take on a special poignancy with the start of yet another hurricane season (it officially began on June 1, though the tropical system Arthur formed a day early around the Yucatan Peninsula). With lingering La Niña conditions and water temperatures in parts of the Gulf of Mexico already a degree or two above average, there’s reason to be concerned.

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I’ve been more fortunate than many, but my post-hurricane experiences have actually raised my awareness a great deal about the importance of sustainability. Because few things make you understand the challenges of sustainable living more than a few days or weeks in a disaster zone with no electricity, no drinkable running water, no passable roads.

And so, with another hurricane season once again looming (it starts June 1), here are some of the sustainability lessons I’ve learned over the years:

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In 2005 the world was aghast by the images seen on television and newspapers of the mass destruction caused to human life and the city of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.

A recent report reveals that State authorities are bolstering levees around Sacramento to prevent it from experiencing Katrina-like effects during a flood. They also hope that severe storms don’t hit the capital city before the completion of projects planned to end by 2012.

With the right combination of bad weather conditions, officials from the Department of Water Resources predict that the American River’s 18,000-square-mile watershed, along with the Sacramento River’s 23,000 square miles in Northern California, could flood the capital city under 20 feet of water, cause $25 billion worth of damage, and devastate homes in Sacramento-area communities.

According to a recent Los Angeles Times article, flooding from the rivers would also leave “500 dead, 102 square miles flooded, and 300,000 people uprooted, an international airport and state agencies under water, and years of recovery.”

So what is the State doing to prevent Sacramento from becoming another New Orleans?

The Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency has been designated to work with state and federal agencies to double Sacramento’s flood protection by using pre-approved $5 billion dollars in state bond money.

Stein Buer, the agency’s executive director, is working with The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the federal Bureau of Reclamation to reinforce the Central Valley’s 1,600 miles of levees, build a spillway channel for the Folsom Dam, and buttress Natomas Basin levees.

Besides infrastructure maintenance, other signs that people are preparing for the worst are building moratoriums near flood-prone areas and higher flood insurance prices.

Environmentalists are concerned about the environmental impacts of more levee construction, homeowners are upset at another high expense, and builders are dismayed at the inability to build, but state officials assure that their plans are in the name of safety.

Because, after all, how horrible would it be if Sacramento became another Katrina? Nobody wants that.

Photo: Wikipedia

Among the most worrisome findings in the paper: the Corps’ failure to “consider the potential for structural failure of levees and floodwalls.”

“As a consequence,” the NRC report states, “the true risk to homes and businesses and people behind structures has not been determined.”

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Penn launched the effort at last week’s Coachella Festival in Indio, California, urging festival-goers to join a three-biodiesel-bus trip across the country to volunteer their services in communities that need help.

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Green Light New Orleans

Established in 2006 after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Green Light New Orleans is the brainchild of Swiss-born musician Andi Hoffmann, who’s now a resident of the Big Easy. Hoffman started the program first as a way to offset the greenhouse gas pollution he and his band b-goes generated during their tours to Europe. It’s since taken on a greater goal: to reduce New Orleanians’ energy costs and help fight climate change.

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A Louisianan through and through (born in Baton Rouge, reared in Houma), Benoit is not only a wonderful Southern Cajun/blues musician, but an outspoken and active environmentalist. His primary cause: protecting and restoring the wetlands of the Gulf Coast … something that would not only help native wildlife but the people of coastal Louisiana (and the overall climate) as well.

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But here’s a new and nifty reason to plan a Crescent City getaway: the Marriott’s “Care Concierge” vacation package.

Now through Nov. 15, travelers who book a stay at one of New Orleans’ Marriott or Renaissance hotels will receive email recommendations for local groups that welcome visitor-volunteers who want to help the city rebuild. And $50 of the package rate (ranging from $159 to $259) will be donated to Habitat for Humanity, which is working to return New Orleans’ flood-ravaged neighborhoods to life.

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The Canary Project

Founded in 2006, The New York-based Canary Project initially set out to build public awareness of climate change by photographing landscapes around the world that are already feeling the impact. It has since expanded its mission "to support a wide variety of other artists working at the intersection of art and ecology." But it’s still the photos, all featured on The Canary Project Website, that pack the most punch.

"Art has the capacity to penetrate received notions, generate media attention and create lasting visceral impact — all of which can be a more effective catalyst to action than mere rational apprehension," wrote co-founders Edward Morris and Susannah Sayler on their Website.
The Canary Project offers up photos illustrating several aspects of climate change: disrupted ecosystems (the Barrier Reef of Belize and the cloud forests of Costa Rica); droughts and fires (the American West); extreme weather events (New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina); glacial, ice cap and permafrost melting (Alaska and Austria); and rising sea levels (Venice, Italy).

It also features some images of encouragement: the massively built Maeslantkering storm surge barrier in the Netherlands and a windmill farm in Palm Springs, California.
Some of the images, like the picture of patterns on the surface of the melting Pasterze Glacier in Austria, are fascinating (who would have thought a flowing river of ice, close up, would resemble an elephant’s gray and wrinkled hide?). Some, such as the photograph of a Venetian crypt, its door opening directly onto a wide stretch of water, evoke the works of surrealist painters.

Others — like the bleak photo of a stripped-bare building slab and a stretch of leafless trees in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana — are chilling.
And more photos are to come. Sayler has so far taken images of 11 of 14 landscapes where the early signs of global warming are making themselves visible. Once she has visited all the locations, she plans to assemble the photographs into a book and traveling exhibition. She also intends to continue taking photos of two to three different regions around the world starting next year.

Some of Sayler’s images have already been on display at various locations, including the Sheehan Gallery at Washington’s Whitman College and The Spring’s Preserve Desert Living Center in Las Vegas. In November, the project has planned an exhibition, video installation and presentation at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, as well as a presentation at the Chicago Humanities Festival.

With more locations yet to be photographed — the Gobi Desert, Siberia, Greenland, Tuvalu, Bangladesh and others — The Canary Project promises to deliver even more climate-oriented inspiration in the months and years to come.

This guest post is by Sarah Nagy. Sarah is in a position to be a much better critic of proposed New Orleans construction because she, too, lives in a hurricane-prone region (the Florida panhandle), and is directly acquainted with appropriate design for a Gulf Coast environment. I think her analysis offers an excellent review of this project, balancing the applause for what she calls ‘Sleek Contemporary Prefab Housing Solutions’ with some pointed criticisms of some of the apparent problems in the design.

The complete essay can be found on Sarah’s blog, Front Step Design.

To look at the images of these houses, Holy Cross is clearly located on the rural prairies of Southern Louisiana. Each of these houses will survey 20 acres. But enough sarcasm. The situation, to anyone who has been there, looks more like the pictures below (from The Urban Conservancy).

The Holy Cross graphics show a narrow house that might fit in an empty shotgun lot. It’d be nice if they showed other houses around it. It’d also be nice if they could ‘age’ the finishes - because as in the Urban Conservancy bottom left photo, everybody in town knows what the ordinary weather does to buildings, and that if those buildings don’t look more charming with peeled paint, mildew and warped wood, they’ll be regarded as slummy. Remember, new and shiny doesn’t last. ‘Sustainable’ means ‘last a long time’.

On to the building. I suppose that monoslope roof w/solar panels faces south, for best solar orientation. Fine. And the next building to the north, #98, its roof will reflect light into those clerestories of #100. Is that okay? Speaking of clerestories, are they operable, to heat-chimney the famously sultry New Orleans air through the structure? Doesn’t look like it. Let the house be a ‘machine for living’ - don’t make people live in a machine.

Cross-ventilation was all the pre-AC shotgun house had - again, windows don’t look large enough to encourage this effect? I can tell you from experience that awning windows suck at letting a breeze in. How about a nice double-or triple-hung with the top sash up against the ceiling, like those oldies in the French Quarter? Examine historic solutions and benefit from generations of testing.

Daylighting: You’re okay here, mostly due to the skinnyness of the form. Good. Overhang on the south side looks pretty good for summer - but your heat gain on the east/west upstairs is going to be tremendous. Better spec solar shades and maybe some sort of awning. However, that south overhang looks too deep for winter heat gain, and there isn’t enough glass on that side to get it. But perhaps there’s enough appliances and people to heat the house in the winter. It does actually get cold enough for central heat in New Orleans. Plan for all expected extremes, not just the famous ones.

Materials: All those thin horizontal slats had better not be local pine, since they’ll warp beyond recognition. And if they’re exotic, you’ve blown your green credential. Perhaps they’re recycled something. Foam insulation, BluWood, PVs, water cisterns, recycled flooring, low-VOC paints = all good. Fiber-cement siding~ iffy. Great for durability and users know what to do with it (paint it! not too often!), but the Portland cement manufacturing process is hugely polluting, and the stuff is awfully heavy to cart around the country. Do they make this stuff local to New Orleans? I don’t know. At least they can bring it in directly from the port. Pursue ‘technological improvements’, but with skepticism.

Systems: A SEER of 10??? [Referring to the energy efficiency rating for the air conditioning equipment.] Hello, what year is this? Illegal in Florida, where 13 is the minimum. 20 if you can afford it (and these government programs should be financing such purchases). Tankless water heaters, good - but solar water heaters are the same initial cost, can be multi-tasked for space heating, and are not mentioned. Use money efficiently, in every direction you can think of.

All that said, I am really an optimist (surprise!). Therefore I have perfect faith that people will pick and choose lots of wonderful ideas that are featured in this program and recombine them into better and better holistic solutions than any architect can devise by himself. Hold off the hurricanes for another couple years, and stand back - housing is finally going to change.

Link: Front Step Design

This portable, self-powered water and sanitation station has many sustainable features, including a composting toilet, rainwater collection and filtration system, and solar panels that, along with a battery, provide all the power the Clean Hub needs and then some. The idea came from folks at Shelter Architecture, but thanks to architecture and design students at the University of Minnesota, it will soon be put to use in New Orleans, where it will be the centerpiece of a community that will foster sustainable growth.

John Dwyer from Shelter Architecture, who also led the students in designing a prototype of the Clean Hub, describes the project:

Shelter developed the idea through a 2 year research and development process. We then brought it in to a studio to allow students to design and build a real world application of it.

The hub is totally off-grid, generating its own water through rain water collection, it's own electricity through photovoltaics, and its own sanitation through composting toilets and gray water irrigation.

The first prototype heads to a learning garden in the hardest hit area of New Orleans on June 21st, the summer solstice.

The architecture students at the University of Minnesota took the concept and ran with it, creating a low-cost solution based on a used storage container that can be easily transported to disaster-stricken areas to provide necessary infrastructure. It was built using recycled and donated parts, lots of elbow grease, and a green vision. The Clean Hub is a simple solution to a complex and common problem that is certainly more practical and sustainable than what FEMA currently uses!

The Clean Hub will be sent to the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, and will serve as a building block to a sustainable rebuilding effort supported by many local organizations. A community garden, farmer's market, and public gathering space will eventually surround it, leading to urban renewal with sustainability in mind.

Hopefully with the success of the Clean Hub in New Orleans, the idea can be continued to help provide water, sanitation, and renewable energy wherever it is needed around the globe. The design was created with urban slums and refugee camps in mind, both possible future homes of the Clean Hub.

This design encompasses cradle-to-cradle thinking, sustainable development, poverty relief, and community building as well as green design. It's not every day that architecture is used to save the planet and help the poor, but the Clean Hub was an opportunity for architecture professionals and students to do just that.