In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

TEN-POINT PLAN FOR REBUILDING NEW ORLEANS

In Business, September-October, 2005, Vol. 27, No. 5, p. 26

Reconstruction and cleanup methods to be used in New Orelans offer an opportunity to address sustainability on a scale that has not been tried before.

Alex Wilson

FOR MANY REASONS, the city of New Orleans should not be rebuilt in its present location. The combination of subsiding land, rising sea levels resulting from global climate change, and deep shipping channels carved into the Mississippi River delta that funnel storm surges toward the city make rebuilding the city in its present location a dubious solution. But New Orleans is almost certain to be rebuilt in its present location, and proponents of sustainable design and building should be part of the discussion about the rebuilding.
The editors of Environmental Building News have developed a ten-point plan for New Orleans, with the help of our Editorial Advisory Board and other experts in sustainable planning and design. The plan is summarized here:
1. Institute a Sustainable New Orleans planning task force. This task force, comprised of leading national experts in sustainable development and community leaders from the New Orleans area, should develop a series of neighborhood, community, city, and regional plans over the next six to 12 months.
2. Pursue coastal and floodplain restoration as the number-one priority in rebuilding New Orleans. Rebuilding without addressing the fundamental hydrologic forces that influence this region would be folly.
3. Immediately establish Sustainable New Orleans enterprise-zone businesses to salvage and warehouse building materials. Even as the planning gets underway for rebuilding New Orleans, locally owned businesses that employ residents should be set up to deconstruct damaged buildings and recover materials that can be used in rebuilding.
4. Rebuild a levee system around the city that is second to none. If New Orleans is to be maintained in its present location, a levee system able to withstand Category 5 hurricanes and storm surges is critical. Where possible, the levees should be integrated into a perimeter park, providing a new recreational amenity to the city.
5. Create Sustainable New Orleans overlay zoning for the city to ensure that the goals of sustainability, safety, and urban vitality will be followed in the city's redevelopment. Emerging from the planning process outlined above, the zoning should provide for mixed uses, pedestrian access, energy efficiency, renewable energy systems that can help residents weather extended power outages, and a strong platform of building science for all construction.
6. Retain and restore those buildings that can be salvaged. While many of the buildings not leveled by the flooding will have to be demolished due to moisture, mold, and structural damage, those buildings that can be detoxified and renovated should be salvaged.
7. Mandate or incentivize green building. The city, state, and federal governments, as well as insurance companies and banks, should encourage going well beyond minimum standards in the reconstruction of the city. Affordable housing should be built at least to Enterprise Foundation Green Communities standards, and public buildings should be required to meet LEED® Gold standards.
8. Work with ecologists and fisheries biologists to create more sustainable fisheries for the Gulf Coast. Because seafood is such an important element of New Orleans's economy and culture, and because local fisheries have suffered from heavy pollutant loadings, protecting and rebuilding those fisheries should be a high priority.
9. Clean up the new brownfields of New Orleans. The most ecologically responsible means, including bioremediation, phytoremediation, and ecological restoration, should be used to detoxify the pollutant-laden sediments left by the flooding.
10. Work with industry to clean up the factories along the Gulf Coast. As part of rebuilding in the New Orleans region, partnerships should be forged among industry, government agencies, environmental organizations, and affected residents to find long-term solutions for greening the industries in this area, which is known as “Cancer Alley.”
These tasks will be both challenging and costly, but the huge investment of taxpayer money needed to rebuild New Orleans and the surrounding area means that the end product should be in the interest of the broader American society. New Orleans can emerge as a model for sustainable development, charting a course that other cities can follow. Let's not look back at the rebuilding of New Orleans as a lost opportunity. Let's work together for a future that the city - and all of America - can be proud of.

Alex Wilson is executive editor of Environmental Building News published by BuildingGreen, Inc. in Brattleboro, Vermont. The complete article appears in the October, 2005 issue. Text of the complete editorial can be found by visiting www.buildinggreen.com.

HURRICANES, CHEMICAL PRODUCTION AND CLEANUP METHODS
The coastal region of Texas is home to 50 percent of U.S. chemical production capacity - and was much in the news as Hurricane Rita bore down on the region. The Freeport area hosts one of the largest clusters of chemical companies in the U.S. Companies operating 22 chemical production sites there - including Dow Chemical, BASF and Schenectady International - produce 131 variations of chemicals and generated 605 million pounds of chemical waste in 2003, the last year such data was available from the EPA Toxic Release Inventory.
About the Katrina cleanup, waste professionals for Louisiana and Mississippi estimated that the number could be over 100 million cubic yards of debris that would be collected, processed and disposed in the coming months. Special sessions at the BioCycle Southeast Conference 2005 will focus on Contamination Cleanup and Storm and Demolition Debris. A panel of researchers and practitioners will evaluate options to compost contaminated soils, sediments, sludge and ground storm debris. See the complete agenda for the Nov. 13-16, 2005 Conference sponsored by BioCycle, sister publication of In Business, to be held in Charlotte, North Carolina on our website http://www.jgpress.com/conferences1/conferences1.html. An announcement in this issue appears on the inside of the back cover with registration details. - J. G.